An acquiring relationship is the formal arrangement between a merchant and an acquirer under which the acquirer processes the merchant's card payments, pays it the proceeds and takes responsibility for it towards the card schemes. It is usually set out in a merchant acquiring agreement and supported by a merchant account. The relationship covers pricing, settlement timing, accepted card brands, security duties, refund and chargeback handling, reserves and termination rights. Before entering one, the acquirer carries out merchant underwriting to judge credit, fraud and compliance risk. Some merchants hold a direct relationship with an acquirer, while smaller sellers are often signed up as a sub-merchant under a payment facilitator, which holds the acquiring relationship itself. Large merchants may keep several relationships, in different countries or with different acquirers, to improve approval rates and resilience.