What Is a Payment Gateway?

If you want to understand the term “payment gateway”, then think about the fact that the city of St. Louis was called the “gateway to the west.” What did that mean?        The gateway was the space they went through to get from one location to another. The gateway was the opening but it was also the place that supplied the needs. So, just as people bought sturdy oxen and wagons and food for the long journey, a payment gateway provides the encryption tools to translate the customer’s credit card number so that it will be kept safe. This payment gateway is the middle point of the process, because it connects and communicates with the merchant (payment portal)  and the acquiring bank (or Front End Processor.)