Macropay glossary

Welcome to the Macropay glossary!

Find the definitions of the key terms used in the payment industry and grow your understanding of this incredible field!

  • #


    • 3D Secure

      Fraud Prevention

      It's an XML-based messaging protocol that allows issuers to guide cardholders through a two-factor authentication procedure for online trans...

  • A


    • Acceptance rate

      Industry

      Represents the percentage of approved transactions out of all the payment attempts.

    • Account

      Industry

      That is what we call access inside Macropay. An account can have many merchants, and from there, a user can control or supervise every aspec...

    • Account Takeover

      Fraud Prevention

      Happens when unauthorized users gain access to legitimate user accounts to commit fraud. These attacks damage an organization's reputation a...

    • Account Updater

      Industry

      It is a service that helps businesses automatically update the latest and most accurate credit and debit card details for their customers.

    • Acquirer Reference Number (ARN)

      Industry

      It represents the identifier the acquirer gives to a transaction once it processes it. After that, it sends it to the card scheme, the issue...

    • Acquiring bank

      Industry

      Financial organization that processes card payments on behalf of a merchant, that operates under its country's laws and is a member of one o...

    • Address Verification System (AVS)

      Fraud Prevention

      A tool that detects suspicious transaction activity based on the card owner's address to prevent credit card fraud. This instrument is provi...

    • Alternative Payment Methods (APM)

      Industry

      It is any way to pay online for goods or services that do not involve cash or a card. This term refers to digital wallets like Apple Pay or ...

    • Anti-Money Laundering (AML)

      Fraud Prevention

      They are the activities that financial institutions execute to fulfill compliance with legal requirements and scrutinize for suspicious tran...

    • Arbitration

      Fraud Prevention

      The process that a merchant can appeal when they want to dispute a second chargeback. In these disputes, the card scheme is the ultimate rul...

    • Attempt

      Industry

      This is when a merchant automatically retries declined transactions using various rules.

    • Attestation of Compliance (AOC)

      Compliance

      Testimony that an organization successfully demonstrated exceptional security best practices to secure cardholder data by complying with the...

    • Authentication

      Fraud Prevention

      Generally, this term refers to a payment succeeding or failing 3DS or another two-factor authentication system.

    • Authorization

      Industry

      This is when the acquirer requests to approve a payment with the issuer via the card scheme network.

    • Authorization Rate

      Industry

      The percentage that represents the transactions accepted by the issuing bank divided by the number of transactions submitted.

  • B


    • Bank Identification Number (BIN)

      Industry

      The first digits of a card identification that refer to the card scheme members. All scheme members, acquirers, and issuers have a BIN.

    • Basis Point (bp)

      Industry

      It's a common way to refer to one-hundredth of a percent, pronounced "bips" in its plural form. This term appears in the calculation of cred...

    • Billing Descriptor

      Industry

      The text on a customer's credit card or bank statement describing a transaction. It helps the customer to identify the charge and reduce pot...

    • Biometric Authentication

      Industry

      A system that uses unique human elements such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or voice patterns to confirm identities and process trans...

    • Blacklisting

      Fraud Prevention

      It is a recording of customers who demonstrated suspicious or fraudulent transaction practices.

    • Buy Now Pay Later

      Industry

      A payment method that allows users to buy a product when they want it and pay for it later in different ways. The payment via BNPL is usuall...

  • C


    • Capture

      Industry

      The subsequent financial operation following authorization. The issuer must capture the transaction to complete it and initiate the fund's f...

    • Card Brand

      Industry

      Represents the name of the institution that facilitates the card scheme.

    • Card not present (CNP)

      Industry

      The term refers to purchases without the physical plastic. It includes online payments and recurring payments.

    • Card scheme

      Industry

      Companies that provide the technical infrastructure and follow regulations in their branded cards. Some of the most popular ones are Visa, M...

    • Card Validation Code (CVC) or Card Verification Value (CVV)

      Industry

      A unique code printed on payment cards that helps authorize payments made online or over the phone. CVC/CVV numbers help protect you if your...

    • Card-on-file

      Industry

      Refers to the safe storage of a card's Primary Account Number (PAN) so it is available for different operations. Used for recurring payments...

    • Cardholder

      Industry

      The legitimate owner of a card issued to them by the bank.

    • Cart abandonment rate

      Industry

      The percentage of users who add products to a shopping cart, but didn't finish the purchase.

    • Cart conversion rate

      Industry

      The percentage of users that add products to the shopping cart and complete a purchase.

    • Chargeback

      Fraud Prevention

      When the issuer demands a payment reversal on behalf of the cardholder, this could happen for several reasons.

    • Chargeback Cycle

      Fraud Prevention

      The chargeback process contains all the stages between a cardholder's initial inquiry or dispute through its resolution.

    • Chargeback Dispute

      Fraud Prevention

      A situation where the customer questions a registered transaction in his account, and the merchant, who performed a legitimate sale, tries t...

    • Chargeback Management System

      Fraud Prevention

      It refers to the best use of tools, techniques, and strategies a merchant uses to minimize the impact of chargebacks on their business.

    • Chargeback rate

      Fraud Prevention

      A metric that shows the ratio of total chargebacks received and total transactions received.

    • Chargeback reason code

      Fraud Prevention

      An alphanumeric code is provided by the issuing bank when the merchant receives a chargeback. It represents the bank’s attempt at translatin...

    • Chargeback representment

      Fraud Prevention

      Strictly regulated process for a merchant to dispute an invalid payment card chargeback. To do it, the merchant must provide all necessary d...

    • Checkout

      Industry

      The point where the customer's account information and payment details are collected, the transaction is processed, and the purchase is comp...

    • Checkout Rate

      Industry

      The result of the division between successful conversions and the total visit count, expressed as a percentage.

    • Clearing file

      Industry

      A document that states the net balance in the chosen settlement currencies that the bank will receive or pay.

    • Co-branded cards

      Industry

      A card that a business, in partnership with a credit card issuer, offers to its clients. Co-branded cards usually earn merchandise discounts...

    • Collection Rate

      Industry

      This rate reflects the percentage of the total billed amount from clients successfully received.

    • Compelling Evidence

      Fraud Prevention

      These are documents that a merchant submits with a chargeback dispute to prove the transaction is valid or otherwise contradicts the chargeb...

    • Confirmed Fraud

      Fraud Prevention

      It refers to when a transaction has gone through a fake confirmation, making it fraudulent.

    • Contactless payment

      Industry

      It is a secure payment method using a debit or credit card that uses radio frequency identification technology (RFID), which allows identify...

    • Control High-risk Merchants (MATCH)

      Compliance

      Stands for Mastercard Alert to Control High-risk Merchants (MATCH). A system that allows an acquiring partner to look at whether another acq...

    • Credit card

      Industry

      It is a digital, plastic, or metal card issued by a bank or a financial services company. This card lets cardholders borrow funds and pay fo...

    • Cross-border Payments

      Industry

      They are payments made from one country to another. Different fees may apply when these actions are made.

    • Customer Initiated Transaction (CIT)

      Industry

      Transactions initiated by the cardholder in any merchant's selling channels.

  • D


    • Debit card

      Industry

      It is a card that can replace physical money to make purchases using the funds of the cardholder's bank account.

    • Decline reason code

      Industry

      Code indicating the decline reason for a payment. The declines can be due to risk reasons on the PSP or acquirer side, or the issuer decline...

    • Declined

      Industry

      Refers to when a card payment is unauthorized for different reasons

    • Device Primary Account Number (DPAN)

      Industry

      It is a device-specific token from the wallet provider (e.g., Apple Pay, Android Pay) to identify the card associated with a cardholder's FP...

    • Discount rate

      Industry

      The Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) is what payment processing companies charge merchants and businesses for card transactions. Also known as t...

    • Dynamic currency conversion (DCC)

      Industry

      DCC allows consumers to pay using their home currency in foreign countries. Customers can see the bill showing the cost in the local currenc...

  • E


    • Electronic Commerce Indicator (ECI)

      Industry

      Code used in response to 3D Secure transactions, specifically in EMV 3D Secure. It helps merchants determine if they should proceed, reject ...

    • EMV

      Industry

      These initials stand for Europay, Visa, and Mastercard, and it's a chip installed inside credit or debit cards to make their transactions mo...

    • Error message

      Industry

      It refers to the errors that could occur while a transaction is processed. (e.g., expired card, miscommunication with the issuer, insufficie...

  • F


    • Failed

      Industry

      It refers to when a transaction is unprocessed due to errors by the merchant or the customer. These errors could be a bad internet connectio...

    • Fallback

      Industry

      It refers to the system that redirects transactions through a different payment provider. With a fallback MID, you will achieve a higher app...

    • False Positive

      Fraud Prevention

      It is a transaction incorrectly identified as fraudulent. When reviewing its information and looking for evidence of fraud, a merchant might...

    • Financial institution

      Industry

      It is an establishment that manages monetary transactions, such as loans, mortgages, and deposits. Financial institutions are where consumer...

    • Four-party-scheme

      Industry

      This term refers to a card payment system that has four parties involved. These are the cardholder, the merchant, the issuer, and the acquir...

    • Fraudulent Activity

      Fraud Prevention

      This type of fraud happens when someone makes an online payment without the account holder's authorization. It usually results from sensitiv...

    • Frictionless

      Industry

      It is a type of payment that is designed to be easy and fast as possible for the customer.

    • Friendly fraud

      Fraud Prevention

      Refers to when a cardholder makes an online purchase using valid payment methods, only to later dispute the transaction by claiming that he ...

    • Funnel

      Industry

      It is a set of steps that defines all the stages a transaction goes through.

  • G


    • Gateway

      Industry

      It is a technology platform that acts as the middleman in online transactions. It enables businesses to process various payment methods, suc...

    • GDPR

      Compliance

      They are the initials for General Data Protection Legislation. It is a European Union law that controls the use, process, and storage of per...

  • H


    • High risk

      Fraud Prevention

      It is a term that describes industries and businesses with a greater chance of chargebacks or fraud.

  • I


    • Identity Theft

      Fraud Prevention

      This type of payment fraud is where someone steals another person's personal information (like their name or credit card number) and uses it...

    • In-app payments

      Industry

      Refers to the purchases that you can make inside a particular app. The most common ones are buying perks for gaming apps and unlocking featu...

    • Instalments

      Industry

      Also known as Buy Now, Pay Later, installment payment is a type of credit that allows customers to complete their purchase in multiple payme...

    • Interchange

      Industry

      They are fees that the merchant pays to the card-issuing bank every time a customer uses a credit/debit card to purchase in their store. The...

    • ISO8583

      Compliance

      It is the international messaging standard for payments with a transaction card.

    • Issuing bank

      Industry

      Financial institution that issues credit or debit cards to their customer's names.

  • K


    • Know your customer (KYC)

      Compliance

      The mandatory process of verifying a customer's identity in opening accounts for fraud prevention.

  • L


    • Liability shift

      Fraud Prevention

      Refers to covering the losses from fraudulent transactions, from the merchant to the issuing bank, when the merchant has authenticated the t...

    • Local card scheme

      Industry

      Card scheme that operates in a single country. Unlike the international schemes which operate around the world.

  • M


    • Machine Learning

      Industry

      The branch of artificial intelligence and computer science that uses data and algorithms to imitate how humans learn, gradually improving it...

    • Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO)

      Industry

      They are remote transactions where customers give their card information to companies via phone or mail. These transactions allow businesses...

    • Merchant

      Industry

      The business or organization that sells a prodcut or a service. Inside Macropay this term refers to the different businesses that receive pa...

    • Merchant Category Code (MCC)

      Industry

      Four-digit numbers assigned by credit card networks to identify businesses and the goods or services they provide.

    • Merchant ID (MID)

      Industry

      A merchant ID is a code issued by card processors when you open up a merchant account. This number serves as an identifier that tells the ba...

    • Merchant of Record (MoR)

      Compliance

      A Merchant of Record is the term that describes the legal entity that manages all its payments. It arranges all due tax payments, ensures PC...

    • Merchant Primary Account Number (MPAN)

      Industry

      The code number that every credit or debit card uses as an identifier. It could have 14-, 15-, 16-, or even up to 19-digit numbers.

    • Merchant Service Provider/Independent Sales Organization (MSP/ISO)

      Industry

      This code identifies the merchant's primary account, where it receives and refunds all its transactions.

    • MIT (Merchant Iniciated Transaction)

      Industry

      A transaction that allows the merchant or a business to initiate payments on behalf of the customer with his consent. This type of transacti...

    • Mobile payments

      Industry

      Refers to any transaction made using a mobile phone and its e-wallets.

    • Multi-Factor Authentication

      Fraud Prevention

      It is a system that helps verify the customer's identity and reduces the chance of fraud.

  • N


    • NFC Payments

      Industry

      Near Field Communication (NFC), or contactless payment, occurs when an E-wallet or an enabled credit or debit card is present in a transacti...

  • O


    • Omni-channel

      Industry

      It refers to the way merchants receive transactions across multiple channels.

    • One-off

      Industry

      It is a payment that customers are unlikely to pay again. 

  • P


    • Payment Authentication

      Fraud Prevention

      Process that confirms a customer's identity through at least one or many factors like knowledge, inherence, ownership, and user location.

    • Payment Facilitator (PF)

      Industry

      Also known as PayFac. A company or service provider that allows merchants to accept electronic payments using the facilitator's infrastructu...

    • Payment gateway

      Industry

      Technology that reads payment cards and sends the customer information to the merchant bank for processing.

    • Payment Management

      Industry

      It is the process of handling payments and its data. It involves processing invoices, keeping track of payment history, smart routing, and m...

    • Payment Method

      Industry

      It refers to the way that merchants collect payments from their customers. These include credit cards, digital wallets, direct debit, offlin...

    • Payment Orchestrator

      Industry

      Refers to a platform that uses different payment service providers, acquirers, apps, and banks in a single place. It acts as a central hub t...

    • Payment page

      Industry

      Web page on the merchant's site that allows customers to purchase items safely.

    • Payment routing

      Industry

      It refers to the creation and customization of channels to redirect payments. It makes them move through specified banks, service providers,...

    • Payment Service Directive (PSD)

      Compliance

      It is a regulation passed by the EU that creates an open, competitive, and secure payment landscape across Europe.

    • Payment Service Provider (PSP)

      Industry

      They are third-party companies that enable electronic transactions between customers, businesses, and banks. They also let merchants accept ...

    • Payout

      Industry

      Payouts refer to the expected monetary returns from the transference of funds from one party to another, typically from a business or organi...

    • PCI Compliant

      Compliance

      This means the company performs under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Regulations. A company must periodically demonstrate ...

    • PCI DSS

      Compliance

      The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of rules that enhances payment data security and facilitates the widespr...

    • Point of sale (POS)

      Industry

      The device used to process transactions by retail customers. POS terminals can process credit cards and debit cards. It may be a physical de...

    • Post-auth

      Industry

      It is a type of authorization that allows the merchant to capture a payment of a customer-approved transaction.

    • Pre-Arbitration

      Fraud Prevention

      It occurs when a cardholder disputes a transaction for a second time with more evidence after a chargeback reversal.

    • Pre-auth

      Industry

      Is the temporary hold of funds on a customer's credit card by a merchant. This is used to ensure that the customer has sufficient funds to c...

    • Primary Account Number (PAN)

      Industry

      They are the unique combination of numbers that identify a credit or debit card. It can contain from 12 to 19 numbers.

    • Processing

      Industry

      Payment processing is the steps or actions that allow fund transference from the customer's account to the merchant's account.

    • Processor

      Industry

      It is a company responsible for managing the card transaction process, keeping the role as an intermediary between the bank and the merchant...

    • PSD2

      Compliance

      Stands for Directive on Payment Services 2. It is a set of laws and regulations that aim to keep customers safe when they make online paymen...

    • PSD3

      Compliance

      The latest set of proposals for the Stands for Directive on Payment Services. A set of laws and regulations that aim to keep customers safe ...

  • Q


    • QR (quick response) code

      Industry

      It is a code that can be scanned by an electronic device and which stores information in a series of pixels in a square grid.

  • R


    • RDR

      Fraud Prevention

      Stands for Rapid Dispute Resolution. It is a service that helps merchants by automating the chargeback dispute resolution process. With it, ...

    • Real-time payment

      Industry

      It is a technology that instantly transfers funds between two bank accounts.

    • Reason Code Matrix

      Compliance

      They are codes given to payments by the central bank or government for regulatory reporting. They provide details about a payment reason to ...

    • Reconciliation

      Industry

      Financial process that ensures that payments made or received are consistent. It does this by matching and comparing transactions with the r...

    • Recurring payments

      Industry

      Also known as subscription payments, they are repeated transactions charged automatically to a customer in periodic intervals.

    • Refund

      Industry

      It is a return of funds to a customer that the merchant already charged.

    • Rejected

      Industry

      This means the payment has not been successful. There could be several reasons why this could happen. The most common ones are insufficient ...

    • Representment

      Fraud Prevention

      The process by which a merchant disputes a chargeback and provides evidence that the transaction was valid and should be in his favor.

    • Retrieval

      Fraud Prevention

      This means that a cardholder or the issuing bank needs more information about a transaction. It is a sign that the transaction will begin th...

    • Retrieval request

      Fraud Prevention

      Denotes the first step in the chargeback process. This means that a cardholder or the issuing bank is requesting more information about a tr...

    • Risk Scoring

      Fraud Prevention

      It is a tool that compares online card transactions against established rules and databases of past transactions.

    • Rolling reserve

      Industry

      It is a percentage of a merchant's gross sales retained by a payment processor or merchant account provider that covers the cost of chargeba...

  • S


    • SAFE

      Fraud Prevention

      It stands for "System to Avoid Fraud Effectively" and consists of a repository of fraud transactions reported daily to Mastercard. The card ...

    • Scheme chargeback program

      Fraud Prevention

      Program imposed by the scheme that enforces an acceptable number of chargebacks across the network. When the chargeback rates surpass this l...

    • SDK

      Industry

      Stands for software development kit. It contains the tools to build software for a particular platform. These also help app developers to in...

    • Self Assesment Questionnaire (SAQ)

      Compliance

      It is a questionnaire for compliance with PCI DSS. The questionnaire is for merchants who outsource the processing to a certified provider. ...

    • Settlement

      Industry

      It refers to the transference of funds between parties in the payments ecosystem. The settlement to the merchant includes payment for all ca...

    • Successful payment

      Industry

      It is when a payment is processed entirely and has no other stages.

  • T


    • TC40

      Fraud Prevention

      TC40 is a repository of fraud transactions daily reported to Visa. The card scheme creates these files and makes them available for all issu...

    • Third-Party Processor (TPP)

      Industry

      It is an entity that lets merchants accept card payments without setting up their merchant accounts. (e.g., Paypal or Stripe)

    • Three-party scheme

      Industry

      In this model, the card scheme enters into contracts with merchants and cardholders, managing the risk without relying on a network of issue...

    • Tokenization

      Industry

      It refers to replacing a liable data element with a non-sensitive equivalent with no meaning or value. The term refers to a token that repla...

    • Traditional Payment Methods (TPM)

      Industry

      It refers to direct transfers, debit and credit cards, or cash transactions between the buyer and seller.

    • Transaction

      Industry

      It is a deal between a customer and a business to exchange financial assets and every other operation related. But this is only one of the s...

    • Transaction Dispute

      Fraud Prevention

      Refers to when a consumer complains about a transaction because of fraud and a lack of merchant follow-through.

    • Transaction Monitoring

      Industry

      This term refers to customer transaction monitoring made by the merchant. Includes assessing historical customer information and interaction...

    • Transaction Risk Analysis (TRA)

      Fraud Prevention

      It refers to analyzing the risk scores (and other factors) of every part involved in the transaction (issuer, acquirer, and merchant) concer...

    • True Fraud

      Fraud Prevention

      This type of fraud occurs when a purchase is made using a lost or stolen credit card without the cardholder's authorization.

    • Two Factor Authentication

      Industry

      The system involves the use of two different factors of authentication to verify a customer's identity and confirm the transaction.

  • V


    • VFMP- Visa Fraud Monitoring Programme

      Fraud Prevention

      It is an initiative that specifies merchants with high fraud and instructs them to reduce this activity within a timeframe to remain complia...

    • Visa Dispute monitoring program (VDMP)

      Fraud Prevention

      Visa's global program monitors disputes, defines non-compliance, identifies accounts with excessive dispute activity, and demands merchants ...

    • Void

      Industry

      A canceled transaction by the merchant before being settled by the cardholder's bank, and the merchant has already received payment.

  • W


    • Wallet

      Industry

      It refers to a financial transaction application that runs on any connected device. The wallet could have access to the customer's card and ...

    • Whitelisting

      Fraud Prevention

      Involves creating or adding different trusted entities or individuals to a list that allows them to receive access to payment services.

  • Z


    • Zero-value auth

      Industry

      It refers to the action of verifying cardholder information without charging any funds.

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