Glossary
Here you will find some key terms and acronyms used in the world of digital payments.
A
Acquirer
An acquirer provides a merchant bank account for businesses that accept card payments.
API
Application Programming Interface, a set of functions and procedures allowing the creation of applications that access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other services. See the Adflex Card Payment API for more information.
APM
Alternative Payment Method, an alternative way of paying that doesn't rely on traditional methods such as credit cards.
Authorisation
The process where a transaction is approved or declined by a card issuer or acquirer. An authorisation is not a guarantee of payment.
AVS
Address Verification Service is a security measure to validate the cardholders address.
B
Batch
A method of uploading payment files at a predetermined time or period. A batch may include serval hours or days of transactions.
Buyer
Also known as the cardholder or merchants customer.
Buyer initiated payments
Issue commercial card payments to suppliers directly from the buyers back-office ERP system. Also known as Push Payments and Straight Through Processing.
B2B
Business-to-business (B2B) refers to commerce between two businesses.
B2C
Business-to-consumer (B2C) refers to the process of selling products and services directly to a consumer.
C
Card Payment API
A card payment API built for developers to integrate debit, credit and purchasing card acceptance.
Chip and Pin
It is used to verify present customer transactions. The PIN (Personal Identification Number) is a four-digit number that the cardholder enters into the merchant's card terminal.
Click to Pay
Click to Pay helps the cardholder speed through an eCommerce checkout by accessing stored card information in a few clicks. The Adflex PayPage, and Payment Links service supports Click to Pay.
CNP
This refers to card transactions that are requested by mail, telephone or over the internet when the cardholder is not present at the point of sale.
CSV/CVC
A three-digit code on the back of a card to validate a card and authorise the transaction.
E
eCommerce
Refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. The Adflex hosted payment page is prefect for eCommerce card processing.
EMV 3-D Secure
A messaging protocol that promotes frictionless authentication and enables the cardholder to authenticate themselves with their card issuer when making card-not-present (CNP) eCommerce purchases.
ERP
Enterprise resource planning is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real-time and provided by software and technology. You can integrate the Adflex API for real-time card processing and reporting.
F
FilePay
Create a payment file from your back-office system and batch upload it to Adflex Filepay for automatic authorisation and settlement.
H
Hosted payment page
Integrate card payments with your website using a hosted payment page to improve checkout conversion and boost eCommerce revenue.
I
Issuer
An issuer is a bank or financial institution that issues the card.
IVR
Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows a system to interact with customers through the use of voice and DTMF tones input via a keypad.
L
Level 3 data
Some B2B Purchasing Cards also flow line item detail which is known as level 3 data, to assist with purchase control and reconciliation.
M
MCLID
Mastercard Line item detail is level 3 data provided with Mastercard purchasing cards.
Merchant
A merchant provides goods or services to their clients. View our merchant solutions here.
MID
An acquirer provides a Merchant Identification Number to link funds processed to the correct business bank account. The MID is unique to a merchant.
MOTO
Mail Order Telephone Order is the processing of taking payments over the phone or by mail.
P
PAN
Primary Account Number. A numerical code consisting of 14+ digits. It identifies the issuer, the cardholders account number and a check digit (Luhn) for authentication.
Payment links
Send payment request links via SMS, electronic invoice or email and pass the card entry to the cardholder using a hosted pay page.
PCI DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a global data security standard that was created to help businesses process card payments securely and to protect confidential payment card information against theft and fraud.
Level 3 Purchasing Card (Pcard)
Businesses use Level 3 Purchasing Cards (Pcard) to eliminate the lengthy process of raising a purchase order and paying suppliers by traditional payment methods such as bank transfer.
Push Payments
Issue payments to suppliers directly from the buyers back-office ERP system using a commercial credit line (corporate credit or purchasing card). A truly automated B2B payment process. Also known as Buyer Initiated Payment and Straight Through Processing .
S
SCA
Strong customer authentication (SCA) is a requirement of the EU Revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) on payment service providers within the European Economic Area. The requirement ensures that electronic payments are performed with multi-factor authentication to increase the security of electronic payments.
SDK
A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and perhaps a software framework.
Secure Remote Commerce (SRC)
A set of specifications developed by EMVCo that enable the creation of a one-click checkout experience.
Settlement
This is typically an end of day process that settles authorisations.
Straight Through Processing (STP)
Issue payments to suppliers directly from the buyers back-office ERP system using a commercial credit line (corporate credit or purchasing card). A truly automated B2B payment process. Also known as Push Payments and Buyer Initiated Payment.
Supplier Onboarding
A process to help more merchants accept a corporate buyers payment method. For example, corporate purchasing cards. Also known as supplier enablement.
T
TID
A terminal ID refers to a unique number that a gateway associates to their service and the merchant's acquirer.
Tokenization
Card tokenization is the process of removing debit, credit or purchasing card data from a company's internal network and replaces the sensitive data (such as the 16-digit card number) with a surrogate value called a token.
V
VGIS
Visa Global Invoice Specification is processed with level 3 data with some purchasing cards.
Virtual Card
Virtual credit cards are unique credit card numbers that allow you to transact on your main credit card account without exposing your main credit card account number. You can limit a virtual credit for one-time use or to work with a single merchant.
Virtual Terminal
A manual solution for handling customer-not-present (CNP) transactions turns your device into a credit card terminal-whether that's a mobile, tablet or desktop.
X
XML
Extensible Markup Language, a system for defining specific markup languages that are used to transmit formatted data.
#
3D Secure 2 (3DS2)
The latest authentication protocol for eCommerce card payments and is designed to improve upon 3D Secure 1 (3DS1) by addressing the old protocol's pain points and delivering a much smoother and integrated user experience.