# Card Network

*Banking & Payments — Finicade finance glossary*

A card network runs the rails between the bank that issued your card and the bank that serves the merchant, setting the rules and the interchange rates. It's a four-party model — cardholder, issuer, acquirer, merchant — with the network in the middle. Networks take a small fee on enormous volume, which makes them among the highest-margin businesses in finance.

**Also known as:** Visa, Mastercard, card scheme, four-party model

**Related terms:** [Interchange Fee](https://finicade.com/glossary/interchange-fee), [Merchant Acquirer](https://finicade.com/glossary/merchant-acquirer), [Payment Processor](https://finicade.com/glossary/payment-processor), [Chargeback](https://finicade.com/glossary/chargeback), [Tokenization](https://finicade.com/glossary/tokenization)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/card-network