Payments Firms Use Georgia’s Limited Purpose Bank Charter
Bank sponsorship has been a staple of merchant acquiring in the United States.
A payments company can provide the technology, process the transaction and manage the merchant relationship, while relying on a bank member of the card networks for the access needed to acquire Visa and Mastercard transactions.
Checkout.com, for example, lists direct U.S. acquiring through its Georgia Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB). Fiserv became the first MALPB to process card transactions in April 2025. Stripe’s MALPB received permission to begin business in May of this year.
The clustering of those moves traces its genesis to a Georgia charter created in 2012 specifically for merchant acquiring. Credorax Bank North America became the first MALPB chartered in the state and the country in 2014.
The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance said the MALPB was created to allow entities engaged in merchant acquiring or settlement activities to directly access payment card networks. When Fiserv began processing under its charter, the state said merchant acquirers can gain direct access to Visa and Mastercard rather than contract with a third-party bank sponsor to use the bank’s identification number.
For processors with the scale and resources to operate a regulated institution, Georgia’s MALPB changes how the acquiring relationship can be assembled.
Network access that previously came through a sponsor bank can reside inside the processor’s own corporate structure. The processor can assume the regulatory and operational responsibilities that accompany that role. Other banking relationships can remain intact. However, MALPBs are not simply following a path to bank disintermediation.
Fiserv Was the First MALPB to Process Transactions
Georgia approved Fiserv MALPB’s charter in September 2024 and permitted it to begin business in April 2025. On April 30, 2025, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance said Fiserv had processed the first card-based payment transactions in the country under an MALPB charter.
Then-CEO Frank Bisignano said in April 2025 the company could use the charter to sponsor its own merchant acquiring where appropriate and “control more of the outcome,” while continuing to work with its bank clients, PYMNTS reported at the time.
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Stripe Preserves Existing Relationships
Stripe subsequently showed how the model can coexist with existing sponsorship arrangements.
When it applied for an MALPB, Stripe told PYMNTS in April 2025 that the charter would allow it to obtain direct U.S. membership with Visa and Mastercard and process payments without a sponsoring bank for transactions handled through the MALPB. But Stripe also said the structure would complement its existing processing and settlement activities and wouldn’t replace existing bank relationships or acquiring BIN sponsorships.
That plan has moved into operation. The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance’s May 2026 bulletin lists Stripe MALPB’s approval date as June 30, 2025, and its date to begin business as May 28, 2026. Stripe’s MALPB Acquirer Terms identify the institution as a network member and the payment method acquirer for applicable Visa and Mastercard transactions.
Checkout.com’s MALPB Charter Is Now Live
Checkout.com now adds another variation. The company announced Jan. 12 that Georgia approved its MALPB charter. The approval put it in a position to move forward with operating the bank and pursuing direct U.S. card network integration. On March 5, Checkout.com said it would move toward direct U.S. acquiring and “begin to process card payments later this year.” Its acquiring materials now state that the U.S. has “direct acquiring via the MALPB charter.” Checkout.com also processes domestically with two sponsor banks.
Unbundling Bank Sponsorship
The emerging MALPB model shows that bank sponsorship can be unbundled. A processor’s own regulated entity can hold direct card network membership and serve as acquirer for transactions routed through that structure, while bank partners continue to perform other roles.
The development to watch, therefore, is what moves with the charter. As processors take direct network membership and acquiring responsibilities inside their own regulated entities, the MALPB provides a test of which functions large payments companies want to own and which they continue to obtain from sponsor banks.
