A card association is a governing network — such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express — that sets the rules and processes for card payments. These organizations coordinate how transactions are routed, fees are structured, and fraud or dispute policies are enforced. While they don’t issue cards themselves, they provide the infrastructure that connects issuers, acquirers, and merchants. Each association has its own rules, compliance standards, and monitoring programs.

As a merchant, you don’t interact directly with card associations, but their rules shape your payment operations. Your solution provider, such as AltoPay, can liaise with card associations on your behalf — learning rules, monitoring changes, and adapting processes. AltoPay can help ensure your processing setup complies with the standards for all supported associations and help you manage risk effectively for each. And we break down our real-time reporting by card association so you always know what is happening at any given moment.