Is NORBr a PSP or an acquirer?

No. NORBr does not acquire transactions or hold merchants' funds. Acquirers and PSPs connected to the platform authorize and settle payments, and the operator holds the commercial relationship with them and with its merchants. NORBr provides the infrastructure that connects them, routes each transaction and reconciles the results.

Neither

NORBr does not acquire transactions, does not hold a scheme license and does not hold merchants' funds. It is not a payment service provider in the regulatory sense either: it does not execute payments on behalf of merchants. It provides the infrastructure that connects operators to acquirers and PSPs, routes each transaction to the right one, and reconciles the results.

Who holds what

• Acquirers and PSPs connected to the platform authorize, capture and settle payments under their licenses.
• The operator holds the commercial relationship with those providers and with its merchants.
• NORBr holds the technology and its own PCI DSS validation as a service provider.

Why the distinction matters

For regulation: the operator's licensing analysis depends on who holds funds, and NORBr does not. For contracts: the operator negotiates acquiring terms directly, and NORBr is not in the chain of funds. For independence: NORBr does not compete with the providers it connects, so it can connect any of them. Operators sometimes describe NORBr as "the layer between us and our acquirers", which is accurate: it is where routing, reconciliation and the merchant experience live, while the money moves through the providers.