It’s an illustration of the  1  The acquirer is the bank that services the merchant. The issuer is the bank that issued the credit card to the cardholder. In a typical credit card transaction, the acquiring bank pays an interchange fee to the issuer.
2  BIS Review 29/2010  principle that, in these rather unique conditions, competition for market share tends to push the average price up rather than down. What I’ve just set out is obviously not a complete description of the cards market.