3-D Secure
A cardholder-authentication protocol used in e-commerce to exchange risk data and, when required, challenge the payer.
Glossary
Payments language
A2A payment
An account-to-account payment that moves funds directly between bank or payment accounts without using a card rail.
Acceptance
The ability of a merchant, terminal or provider to receive a particular payment method, credential or scheme brand.
ACH
Automated clearing house: infrastructure that exchanges and clears electronic payment instructions, commonly in files or processing cycles.
Acquirer
The institution that provides merchant acceptance for card payments and connects the merchant side to the card scheme or network.
Acquiring
The services that enable a merchant to accept payments, including onboarding, authorization routing, clearing, settlement and merchant funding.
AISP
Account information service provider: an authorized party that accesses payment-account information with the account holder's consent.
Alias or proxy
A memorable identifier such as a phone number, email address or national ID that resolves to an underlying payment account.
AML
Anti-money laundering: controls designed to identify, assess, monitor and report activity associated with money laundering or terrorist financing.
API
Application programming interface: a defined way for software systems to exchange requests, responses and structured data.
ATM
Automated teller machine: a device that lets authorized users withdraw cash and often perform other account services.
Authentication
The process of verifying a person, device or credential before allowing access or approving a payment action.
Authorization
The decision that a payment may proceed, often after checking credentials, limits and available funds.
Batch clearing
Clearing in which multiple payment instructions are accumulated and processed together at scheduled intervals.
Beneficiary
The person or organization designated to receive funds; often synonymous with the payee.
BIC
Business Identifier Code: an ISO 9362 code used to identify financial and non-financial institutions in financial messaging.
BIN or IIN
Bank Identification Number or Issuer Identification Number: the leading digits of a payment-card number that identify an issuing range.
Capture
The step that confirms an authorized card payment for clearing and settlement.
Card network
The technical and commercial network that carries card transaction messages between acceptance and issuing participants.
Card-not-present
A card payment where the physical card is not presented to the merchant, such as online or in-app commerce.
Card-present
A card payment made at a physical acceptance point using a chip, contactless interface or magnetic stripe.
Central bank money
A claim on a central bank, used for cash and for settlement balances held by eligible institutions at the central bank.
Chargeback
A card transaction reversed through the scheme dispute process after an issuer accepts a cardholder claim.
Clearing
The exchange, validation and calculation of payment obligations before settlement.
Clearing house
An organization or infrastructure that receives, validates, matches, sorts or nets payment obligations between participants.
Clearing member
A participant entitled to submit transactions directly to a clearing arrangement and responsible for the resulting obligations.
Closed-loop
A payment arrangement in which issuance and acceptance operate within a limited proprietary network rather than across broadly interoperable participants.
Commercial bank money
Deposit money that represents a claim on a commercial bank and is transferred when customers make account payments.
Confirmation of Payee
A service that checks whether the intended recipient's name matches the account details before a payment is sent.
Contactless payment
A proximity payment initiated by tapping a card or device, commonly using NFC technology.
Correspondent banking
An arrangement in which one bank provides payment, clearing, account or other services to another bank, often across borders.
Credit transfer
A push payment in which the payer instructs its provider to transfer funds to a beneficiary's account.
Cross-border
A payment where payer and payee, or their providers, are in different markets.
CSM
Clearing and settlement mechanism: the infrastructure and procedures used to clear payment instructions and settle the resulting obligations.
Cut-off time
The deadline after which a payment instruction is processed in a later clearing or settlement cycle.
Decline
A decision by an issuer, provider or risk control not to approve or process a payment attempt.
Deferred net settlement
Settlement in which obligations are accumulated, netted and settled at one or more designated times rather than transaction by transaction.
Direct debit
A pull payment in which the payee initiates collection from the payer's account under a valid mandate.
Direct participant
An institution that connects to a scheme or system in its own name and directly holds the associated rights and obligations.
Dispute
A formal claim that challenges a payment because of fraud, service, processing or authorization concerns.
Domestic payment
A payment where the relevant payer, payee and processing scope are within the same market.
E-money
Electronically stored monetary value issued against received funds and accepted by a party other than the issuer.
Effective date
The date from which a rule, event or data point applies in the real world.
EMV
A family of specifications supporting interoperable chip, contactless, tokenized and related card-payment experiences.
Faster payments
Retail account-to-account payments designed to clear and make funds available within seconds or minutes.
Finality
The point after which a payment or settlement transfer becomes irrevocable and unconditional under the applicable rules and law.
Four-party card scheme
A card model with separate issuing and acquiring sides connected through a scheme, alongside the cardholder and merchant.
Gross settlement
Settlement in which each obligation is settled individually for its full value without being netted against other obligations.
IBAN
International Bank Account Number: an ISO 13616 identifier that standardizes account identification for domestic and cross-border payments.
Indirect participant
An institution that accesses a scheme or system through a direct participant rather than connecting and settling in its own name.
Instant payment
An electronic retail payment that is processed and makes funds available to the beneficiary within seconds, typically at all times.
Interchange
A fee generally paid between the acquiring and issuing sides of a card transaction under scheme rules.
Interoperability
The ability of different providers, instruments, schemes or systems to exchange and process payments using compatible rules and standards.
ISO 20022
A global financial-messaging standard that defines structured, data-rich messages for payments and related services.
ISO 8583
A message format commonly used for card-originated transaction messages such as authorizations, financial presentments and reversals.
Issuer
The institution that provides a payment credential or account to the payer and authorizes transactions on its behalf.
KYC and KYB
Know Your Customer and Know Your Business: processes for identifying, verifying and risk-assessing individuals and organizations.
Large-value payment
A payment whose size, urgency or systemic importance generally requires high-assurance processing and settlement.
LVPS
Large-value payment system: infrastructure primarily designed for urgent, high-value or systemically important interbank payments.
Mandate
The payer's authorization allowing a creditor to initiate one or more direct debits under defined conditions.
MCC
Merchant Category Code: a four-digit code used by card networks to classify a merchant's primary business activity.
Merchant of record
The legal entity presented to the customer as the seller and responsible for the payment, refunds and related obligations.
Message standard
A common structure, vocabulary and set of rules for exchanging payment instructions and related data between systems.
Mobile money
Electronically stored value or account money accessed primarily through a mobile service, often supported by an agent network.
NFC
Near-field communication: short-range wireless technology commonly used for contactless card and wallet payments.
Netting
The process of offsetting payment obligations to produce one or more smaller net positions for settlement.
Network token
A payment token issued or managed for a card network that substitutes for the underlying card number and can be restricted by device, merchant or use case.
Nostro account
An account a bank holds with another bank, commonly used to make and receive payments in the correspondent bank's currency or market.
Observed date
The date on which Aurato retrieved or reviewed the supporting source.
On-us payment
A payment where the payer and payee are served by the same institution, allowing internal processing.
Open banking
Regulated or standardized access to bank-account data and payment initiation through authorized third parties.
Open-loop
A payment arrangement designed for acceptance across multiple independent issuers, acquirers or providers under shared rules.
Operator
The organization that manages a payment method, scheme or system and is accountable for its operation, access or rules.
Overlay scheme
A customer-facing arrangement that adds addressing, messaging, experience or additional rules on top of underlying payment schemes or systems without replacing their clearing and settlement rails.
PAN
Primary Account Number: the card number that identifies an issuer and an individual card account or credential range.
Participant
An institution or provider admitted to a payment scheme or system under its access criteria and rules.
Passthrough wallet
A wallet that stores or tokenizes payment credentials and passes the transaction to an underlying card or account rail instead of funding it from its own stored balance.
Payee
The person or organization intended to receive a payment.
Payer
The person or organization whose funds are used to make a payment.
Payment facilitator
A provider that enables sub-merchants to accept payments under a master acquiring relationship.
Payment gateway
Technology that securely collects and transmits payment information between a merchant and processing or acquiring providers.
Payment initiation service
A service that initiates an account payment on a payer's behalf with the payer's consent.
Payment instrument
A device, credential, application or agreed procedure used to initiate a payment order.
Payment method
The customer- or merchant-facing way to initiate or receive a payment.
Payment orchestration
A software layer that manages payment-provider connections, routing, retries, tokens and transaction workflows across multiple processors or acquirers.
Payment rail
A common industry term for the infrastructure and operating path that carries payment messages and, directly or indirectly, funds.
Payment request
A structured request asking a payer to initiate a payment, often carrying the beneficiary, amount and remittance information.
Payment scheme
A governed set of rules, rights, obligations and participation requirements for a payment proposition.
Payment system
Technical infrastructure for routing, processing, clearing or settlement.
Payout
A payment sent by a business or platform to a customer, worker, seller or other beneficiary.
PISP
Payment initiation service provider: an authorized third party that initiates an account payment with the payer's consent.
POS
Point of sale: the physical or digital acceptance environment where a customer pays a merchant.
Prefunding
Funds placed with a system, provider or settlement account in advance to cover expected payment obligations.
Processor
A provider that handles transaction messages and processing logic for merchants, PSPs or financial institutions.
Proxy directory
A service that maps aliases such as phone numbers or email addresses to payment accounts or participant routing details.
PSP
Payment service provider: a company offering payment acceptance or related payment services through one integration.
Pull payment
A payment initiated by the payee or creditor under the payer's prior authority, such as a direct debit.
Push payment
A payment initiated by the payer, such as a credit transfer from one account to another.
QR code payment
A payment initiated by scanning or presenting a machine-readable code containing payment, merchant or account information.
Real-time gross settlement
An RTGS system settles individual high-value or urgent payments continuously in central-bank money.
Reconciliation
The process of matching payment records, settlement entries and account movements to identify and resolve differences.
Refund
A new payment that returns all or part of a completed payment to the payer.
Remittance
A person-to-person transfer, commonly sent across borders to family or another private beneficiary.
Request to Pay
A messaging service through which a payee sends a structured payment request that the payer can approve, reject or schedule.
Reversal
The cancellation or release of a payment or authorization before or during completion, rather than a later refund.
Routing
The selection of the provider, acquirer, system or path used to carry a payment message.
RTGS
Real-time gross settlement: settlement of individual obligations continuously, in full and without netting, typically in central bank money.
Safeguarding
Measures that separate and protect customer funds held by a payment or e-money institution from the institution's own assets and creditors.
SCA
Strong customer authentication: authentication using at least two independent elements from knowledge, possession and inherence categories.
SCT
SEPA Credit Transfer: the European Payments Council scheme for euro credit transfers across the SEPA area.
SCT Inst
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer: the European scheme for euro credit transfers made available to the beneficiary within seconds.
SDD
SEPA Direct Debit: the European scheme family for collecting euro payments from an account under a mandate.
SEPA
Single Euro Payments Area: the European framework for harmonized euro credit transfers and direct debits across participating markets.
Scheme fee
A fee charged under a payment scheme's rules for participation, processing or related services.
Settlement
The final transfer of funds or balances between participating institutions.
Settlement account
An account used by a participant to discharge settlement obligations, often held at a central bank or settlement institution.
Settlement asset
The money or other asset transferred to extinguish obligations between participants, such as central bank or commercial bank money.
Settlement finality
The legally defined point at which settlement is irrevocable, unconditional and protected from later unwinding.
Sponsor bank
A bank that provides regulated access, settlement, accounts or scheme participation to another payment provider.
Staged wallet
A wallet in which funds first move into a wallet balance and a separate transaction later pays the recipient or merchant.
Stored-value wallet
A wallet that holds monetary value issued or maintained by the wallet provider for later payments or transfers.
Straight-through processing
Automated end-to-end processing of a payment without manual re-entry or intervention.
Switch
Infrastructure that routes transaction messages between participants and may also perform validation, authorization forwarding or clearing functions.
Three-party card scheme
A card model in which the scheme typically contracts directly with both cardholders and merchants, combining issuing and acquiring roles.
Tokenization
The replacement of sensitive payment credentials with a limited-use token that can be safely processed or stored.
TPV
Total payment value: the value processed in a stated period and scope.
Transaction
A single payment-related event or instruction; its exact counted stage should be stated when used as a metric.
Travel rule
A requirement for specified originator and beneficiary information to accompany qualifying transfers between regulated providers.
TSP
Token service provider: an entity that creates, manages and maps payment tokens to underlying credentials.
Vostro account
An account a foreign or correspondent bank holds on another bank's books; from the account-servicing bank's perspective, it is a vostro.
Wallet
A digital product that stores payment credentials, value or access to funding sources and helps users initiate payments.
Wholesale payment
A payment between financial institutions or other large participants, often high-value, time-critical or related to financial-market activity.