What is a Netzbetreiber? Roles, contracts and who earns what at the terminal
Payment network operator, acquirer, card scheme, issuing bank: who does what in a card payment, why girocard has no acquirer, and what “commercial payment network operator” really means.
The short answer
A payment network operator (Netzbetreiber) connects the card terminal at the till with the banks and card schemes. It provides the terminal, forwards every payment for authorisation, creates the submission files for the credit, settles with the merchant and is its point of contact when something goes wrong. Without a payment network operator, no terminal in Germany books anything.
One role in the rulebook, two roles in the market
The Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (DK), the association of the four German banking associations, recognises exactly one role in its approval contract: “Netzbetreiber”. The contract is concluded between the associations and a company, is not transferable and obliges the operator, among other things, to install terminals, connect to the operator host, load keys and maintain a contingency plan with a restart time of under two hours.
Even so, a split into two has established itself in the market, and the approval contract expressly permits it, because the payment network operator may commission third parties to provide services and may win merchants through intermediaries:
| Technical payment network operator | Commercial payment network operator | |
|---|---|---|
| Approval | approved by the DK | contractually bound third party |
| Task | data centre, authorisation routing, end-of-day processing, keys | sales, advice, contract with the merchant, terminal, billing, service |
| Visible to the merchant | usually not | yes, this is its contractual partner |
The commercial payment network operator sells or rents out the terminal directly, bills the transaction costs directly and owns the customer relationship. It buys in the technical processing. For the merchant the difference is invisible in day-to-day business, but decisive in the contract: its point of contact for price, contract term and service is the commercial payment network operator.
The merchant's four contractual relationships
Anyone installing a terminal usually signs not one contract but several, often bundled in a single form:
- Payment network operator contract: technology, terminal, operation, service.
- Fee agreement with the card-issuing banks for girocard: this is where the girocard fee arises.
- Acquiring contract for Visa, Mastercard and other credit cards: this is where the merchant discount rate, interchange and scheme fees arise.
- Terminal rental or purchase: hardware, contract term, replacement.
This very split is the reason why offers are hard to compare. A provider can advertise a low percentage on item 3 and take its margin on items 1 and 4.
Why girocard has no acquirer
Visa and Mastercard use the four-party model: customer, card-issuing bank (issuer), merchant, merchant bank (acquirer), with the card scheme in between. The acquirer guarantees payment to the merchant and charges the merchant discount rate for it.
girocard works differently. With a positive authorisation, the card-issuing bank declares directly that it will settle the claim. The merchant owes the fee to that same bank, not to an acquirer; the rates have been negotiated bilaterally since the banking industry's commitment to the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) in 2014. The payment network operator collects them and passes them on in a fiduciary capacity. That is why girocard is usually the cheapest card for the merchant, and why it is worth checking in the contract whether the provider really bills girocard at its own rates or blends it into a flat rate together with the credit cards.
Figures from the current merchant terms
From the girocard merchant terms (April 2026 version): submission deadline eight days, retention of the merchant journal 15 months, complaint information within ten days, contactless without a PIN up to 50 euros, cashback up to 200 euros from a minimum spend of 20 euros.
Austria: different terms, different structure
Austria has neither girocard nor the term Netzbetreiber. The chamber of commerce describes the market in terms of acquirers, issuers and card networks; people pay with Debit Mastercard, Visa Debit and the Bankomatkarte. Anyone operating in both countries needs two contract models, not a translation.
How to recognise a good payment network operator
- It names every cost item before you fill in a form.
- It bills girocard separately from credit cards.
- It tells you which technical payment network operator is behind it.
- It states the contract term, the notice period and the replacement time for faulty devices in writing.