When working with online payments, you often encounter the terms gateway and acquirer. They are frequently confused — but they play two very different roles in the payment flow.

At IEX, we retrieve payout reports directly from the acquirer. To understand why, it’s important to understand the difference.

A payment gateway is the technical solution that:

The gateway is the system the customer interacts with during checkout.

However, the gateway does not handle the actual money.

An acquirer is the financial institution that:

In other words, the acquirer is the party that “withdraws the money behind the gateway” and manages the actual settlement.

Because the acquirer:

The gateway may show authorizations and transaction data — but the acquirer’s reports show:

That is why IEX retrieves payout reports directly from the acquirer to ensure accurate reconciliation and bookkeeping.

Many businesses believe their gateway is their “payment provider.”

But the key question is:

Who is actually withdrawing the funds and paying them out to your bank account?

That is your acquirer — and that is where the settlement takes place.

Some of the most widely used gateways in Scandinavia include:

Some providers (such as Stripe and Adyen) operate as both gateway and acquirer within a single integrated solution.

IEX supports a number of the largest acquirers in the Nordic region. If you are unsure which acquirer is withdrawing and paying out your funds, you can check whether you receive payouts from any of the following:

Note:
Several modern payment providers combine gateway and acquiring services into one solution — however, technically and from an accounting perspective, the roles remain distinct.

By retrieving payout reports directly from the acquirer, IEX ensures:

It is the acquirer’s reports that reflect the financial reality — which is why we base our reconciliation on them.