How does credit card work?

Three parties are involved in the processing of credit cards. They are:

Party

Role

Issuing bank

Issues the credit cards, sets the terms and benefits, collects payments and provides customer services

Acquiring bank

- Negotiates with retail merchants to accept payments from cardholders

- Installs and maintains Point of Sales (POS) machines and ATM network

Payment network

Provides the technology platform to process payments on retail terminals and online. Examples are VISA, MasterCard, and UnionPay.

VISA does not actually issue credit cards to customers. CIMB Cambodia is an issuing bank and works with VISA to issue cards to customers.  Issuing bank and acquiring bank can be the same or different bank. Issuing bank can work with multiple payment networks simultaneously. 

 

When a CIMB VISA card is charged at a retail POS, the merchant’s POS terminal sends an electronic message through VisaNet to CIMB system to verify credit card data, user PIN and available balance. If the data are valid and balance is available, the system will authorize the transaction and the POS terminal will print a receipt for reference by the cardholder. PIN-verified transactions do not require signature. For security reason, VISA no longer accepts swipes using magnetic stripe.

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