The Glossary of The Terms
Terms, acronyms and abbreviations opened up.
| Term | Explanation |
| 3-D Secure (3DS) | Card authentication protocol that adds an additional payer authentication step (e.g., “Verified by Visa”) to reduce fraud in e-commerce. |
| A2A (Account-to-Account) Payments | Funds move directly from a payer’s bank account to a payee’s bank account, typically bypassing card networks; can be batch, real-time, or API-initiated. |
| ACH | Automated Clearing House |
| AISP (Account Information Service Provider) | Third party (regulated in PSD2 regions) authorised to access and aggregate account information from banks with customer consent. |
| AML (Anti-Money Laundering) | Regulatory framework of controls, monitoring, and reporting designed to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. |
| AOS | Additional Optional Service |
| APP Fraud (Authorised Push Payment Fraud) | Fraud in which a payer is tricked into authorising a legitimate push payment to a fraudster’s account. |
| ASPSP (Account Servicing Payment Service Provider) | Institution (often the customer’s bank) that holds the account and provides access/services—incl. APIs—to authorised third parties under PSD2/Open Banking. |
| Bacs | UK batch electronic clearing system for Direct Credits (e.g., payroll) and Direct Debits (bill collection); multi-day settlement. |
| BAI, BAI2 | Account Statement Standard (North America) |
| BBAN | Basic Bank Account Number |
| BIC | Bank Identifier Code |
| C2B | Corporate-to-Bank |
| CBPR+ | SWIFT community specifications defining how ISO 20022 messages are used for cross-border payments and reporting in the SWIFT network migration from MT. |
| CEFACT | UN Centre for Trade Facilitation & Electronic Business |
| CHAPS | UK same-day high-value sterling payment system operating in real-time gross settlement at the Bank of England. |
| CHIPS | U.S. large-value USD payment system with intraday netting and later-day settlement, operated by The Clearing House. |
| CoP (Confirmation of Payee) | UK account-name checking service that verifies the payee name against sort code/account number to reduce misdirected and fraudulent payments. |
| CT | Credit Transfer |
| CVV / CVC | Card verification value/code printed (or encoded) on payment cards and used to authenticate card-not-present transactions. |
| DUNS | Data Universal Numbering System |
| EANGLN | European Association for Numbering Global Location Number |
| EBA | European Banking Association |
| EBA | European Banking Authority |
| EBA (European Banking Association) | Industry association that provides pan-European clearing and settlement services (e.g., EBA CLEARING). Use to distinguish from the EU regulator below. |
| EBA (European Banking Authority) | EU regulatory agency that issues technical standards and supervisory guidance for the banking and payments sector. Distinguish from EBA Association. |
| ECB | European Central Bank |
| e-Mandate (SEPA / electronic mandate) | Electronic capture and transmission of a debtor’s mandate authorisation (e.g., for SEPA Direct Debit), replacing paper forms. |
| EMV | Global chip-card and acceptance specifications (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) enabling secure, interoperable card-present and contactless transactions. |
| EPC | European Payments Council |
| ePI | electronic Payment Initiator |
| ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| FATF | Financial Action Task Force |
| FedNow Service | U.S. Federal Reserve instant payment service providing 24/7/365 clearing and settlement of credit push payments between participating institutions. |
| Fedwire Funds Service | U.S. high-value, time-critical real-time gross settlement service operated by the Federal Reserve Banks. |
| FPS | UK’s Faster Payments Service |
| FPS (Faster Payments Service) | UK near-real-time 24/7 retail payment system for sterling account-to-account transfers within scheme limits. |
| FX | Foreign exchange |
| IBAN | International Bank Account Number |
| IBEI | International Business Entity Identifier |
| IG | Implementation guide |
| Instant Payments Regulation (EU) | EU regulation requiring PSPs that offer euro credit transfers to also offer instant (24/7, seconds) versions; staged compliance across the EU. |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| ISO 20022 | Global financial messaging standard using XML/JSON structures for rich, structured data across payments, cash management, securities, etc. |
| ISO 8583 | Card standard |
| ISO 8583 | Legacy card-payment message standard used for authorisation, clearing, and settlement messages in many card networks and ATM/POS switches. |
| KYC | Know Your Customer |
| LEI | Legal Entity Identifier. It is a globally unique alphanumeric reference based on the ISO 17442 standard assigned to a legal entity and maintained by GLEIF |
| Mandate Management (generic / PayTo / Mandated Payments) | Centralised storage and lifecycle control of payer authorisations that allow future payments to be pulled or triggered under agreed parameters. |
| MDR | Message Definition Report |
| MIG | Message Implementation Guide |
| MT (e.g. MT 101) | Message Type by SWIFT |
| NPP (New Payments Platform) | Australia’s real-time 24/7 payments infrastructure using ISO 20022 data and supporting overlay services such as PayID and PayTo. |
| Open Banking | Regulated or market-driven framework in which banks expose APIs for data access and/or payment initiation to authorised third parties with customer consent. |
| P2M (Person-to-Merchant) Payment | Consumer-to-business payment made from a personal account to a merchant (e.g., QR pay, Pay by Bank, card-on-file token, wallet). |
| P2P (Person-to-Person) Payment | Payment from one individual to another, often real-time or near-real-time, via mobile apps, online banking, or alias-based addressing. |
| PAIN(e.g. pain.001) | Payments Initiation ISO20022 see iso20022.com and iso20022.org |
| PAN (Primary Account Number) | The card number embossed/printed on a payment card that identifies the issuer and the cardholder’s account. |
| Pay by Bank (PbB) | Consumer checkout flow where the payer authorises an A2A transfer directly from online/mobile banking—card alternative with lower scheme fees. |
| PayID | Alias addressing service in Australia’s NPP linking an easy identifier (mobile, email, ABN, etc.) to a bank account for real-time payments. |
| PCI DSS | Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard specifying technical and operational controls for safeguarding cardholder data. |
| PEPPOL | International einvoice standard |
| PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) | Regulated third party (PSD2/Open Banking) authorised to initiate payments from a customer’s account at an ASPSP with consent. |
| Pix | Brazil’s central bank instant payment scheme enabling 24/7 real-time A2A transfers via keys (aliases), QR codes, or static identifiers. |
| PSD2 | EU Payment Services Directive 2 (Open Banking) |
| PSR | Payment Status Report |
| Request to Pay (UK) | Pay.UK messaging overlay that lets billers request a payment; payer can pay now, schedule, part-pay, or decline; complements Direct Debit/FPS. |
| RTGS | Real‑Time Gross Settlement (Central Bank) |
| RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement) | Funds transfer system in which interbank payments are settled individually, in real time, in central bank money (no netting). |
| RTP Network (U.S.) | The Clearing House real-time payments network supporting instant, data-rich credit push payments in USD with immediate funds availability. |
| Same Day ACH | U.S. ACH enhancement that provides additional intraday settlement windows so ACH transactions can clear and settle on the same business day. |
| SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) | Multi-factor authentication (two+ factors: knowledge, possession, inherence) required for many electronic payments under PSD2. |
| SCC | SEPA Credit Card |
| SCORE | Standardised Corporate Environment (administered by SWIFT) |
| SCT | SEPA Credit Transfer |
| SCT Inst (SEPA Instant Credit Transfer) | EPC scheme for pan-European euro instant credit transfers processed in seconds, 24/7/365. |
| SDD | SEPA Direct Debit |
| SEPA | Single Euro Payments Area |
| SRTP (SEPA Request-to-Pay) | EPC scheme enabling a structured payment request message that can be accepted and settled (often via SCT / SCT Inst). |
| SWIFT gpi | SWIFT service improving cross-border payment speed, tracking, and fee transparency with end-to-end payment status visibility. |
| SWIFT Net | Messaging network |
| T2 / T2S / TIPS | Financial market infrastructure services developed and operated by the Eurosystem which ensure the free flow of cash, securities and collateral across Euro zone. TARGET2, Securities, Instant Payment system operations |
| Target Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) | Eurosystem service that provides real-time settlement in central bank money to support instant payments across the euro area (SCT Inst reach). |
| Term | Definition |
| Tokenization (Payment Tokenization) | Replacement of sensitive payment credentials (e.g., PAN) with a surrogate token that can be used for transactions without exposing the original data. |
| TTP | Third‑party Payment Provider (under PSD2) |
| UPI (Unified Payments Interface) | India’s real-time mobile-first A2A payment system supporting push and collect requests via virtual payment addresses and QR codes. |
| Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) | Open-banking consent model allowing authorised parties to initiate multiple payments within agreed limits (amount, frequency, duration) without re-auth each time. |
| VOP | Validation of Payee |
| Wallet (Digital Wallet) | Application or service that securely stores payment instruments (cards, tokens, bank credentials) and can initiate payments digitally (mobile, web, wearable). |