TSG’s 2025 Directory of U.S. Merchant Acquirers, sponsored by Discover® Network, is a report that includes vital business statistics on more than 300 of the nation’s payment players that collectively process 95%+ of all card payment volume in the United States.
When looking at the data inside this report, a variety of merchant-acquiring insights stand out:
- The top five players processed an estimated $8 trillion in card volume in 2024. All five players have strong bank sales channels, as they are either bank-owned or have bank partners/clients from other business areas. About 60% of the volume represented in the Directory is processed by these top five players, and nearly 90% of the volume represented in the Directory is processed by the top twenty-five listed players.
- Looking at the top-ranked companies, JPMorgan Chase & Co. remains first again this year for estimated U.S. total processing volume, at $2.6T, and total transactions, which eclipsed 50B. Square ranks first for the estimated U.S. total number of merchants, at an estimated 4M.
- Authorize.net (a Visa solution) is the payment gateway with the most partnerships among the acquirers listed, partnering with 41% of these players, a similar percentage as last year.
- 41% of the players listed sell Fiserv’s Clover point-of-sale products, up from 38% of providers that listed Clover as an available smart POS offering.
- It’s impressive to have over a million domestic clients—only Square, Stripe, QuickBooks Payments, Global Payments, and Worldpay hit that threshold.
- With its predominant focus on restaurants, Toast continues to amass considerable market share, registering as the 14th largest provider by processing volume.
- Over 40% of all represented entities listed Wells Fargo as a Sponsor Bank they partner with and continue to be the most utilized throughout the Directory.
- There are ~70 entities that process over $10B in annual volume in the U.S. market, showing the industry’s high competitiveness.
- 39% of the acquirers in the Directory have an in-house or white-labeled payment gateway, showing the competitive nature of the gateway landscape. These players can control features, development roadmap, and pricing more than entities without a solution.
- Only 2% of listed entities marketed no solution for eCommerce merchants.
- Integrated sells – 72% of the top 50 listings within the directory, by volume, utilized the ISV sales channel.
- 43% of providers have more than one sponsor bank relationship.
- 51% of all providers directly marketed the existence of a surcharging or cash discounting/dual pricing program – an increase from 43% last year.
General Commentary: Merchant Acquiring Insights
Throughout 2024, the spread of contactless, embedded, and real-time payments continued to influence the decline of cash usage that has been exacerbated since the beginning of the global pandemic five years ago. As cash usage continues to decline, eCommerce spending continues to increase, and globally, it is expected to grow to over $10 trillion by 2030. While these evolving trends and topics have remained constant in the years since the pandemic, what has noticeably shifted in 2024 is the slowly declining growth rate of electronic payments volume in the U.S.
While the U.S. payments industry has habitually increased at a CAGR of 9% in the pre-pandemic period of 2015-2019, Visa and Mastercard payment volume showed signs of slowing in 2023, growing only ~7% YoY. In 2024, payment volume increased at an even more reduced ~5%.
This slowing growth rate hasn’t stopped certain players in the acquiring landscape from excelling. Players such as Stripe, Adyen, Toast, and PayPal continue to grow expansively, taking market share from legacy incumbents. However, even entities considered on the cutting edge struggled in 2024, with entities such as Square (Block Inc.) posting near flat volume growth in the U.S. (but did grow payment volumes internationally).
While these emerging integrated-focused (and increasingly vertically focused) entrants continue to grow, institutional providers have taken steps to be more competitive. Revaluations of the pricing model (including the offering of surcharge and cash discount options), the acquisition and development of smart POS offerings, and the diversification of sales channels and strategy (ISV channels) have allowed the industry to become increasingly competitive and better-positioned to compete with the new trailblazers of the industry.
As inflation and recessionary concerns proliferate, the near market forecast and consumer credit numbers continue to exacerbate, the ability of acquiring industry participants to develop and offer these table stakes, competitive offerings, and value-added services will become essential for thriving in an uncertain economy.
If you have questions or want to learn more about the Directory of U.S. Merchant Acquirers, please contact us or email our eReports team at ereports@tsgpayments.com.
Note: All entities acknowledged within this article and most represented within the referenced companion report are believed to own a portfolio of merchant accounts or hold a strategic interest in the management of their merchants’ internal payment processing functions, to the extent that they merit inclusion as a “merchant acquirer.” Ex. Square possesses multiple service provider registrations through Visa, including as a payment facilitator and as a registered ISO.