Glossary

  • 3-D Secure/Payer Authentication is an umbrella term for an additional protocol or process designed to lower risk in e-commerce by requiring the purchaser to provide additional unique information about themselves that can verified by their card issuer / bank. Well known examples are

    • Visa’s Verified by Visa
    • MasterCard Secure Code
    • JCB’s J-Secure
    • AMEX’s SecureKey

  • An acquirer is a financial institution licensed by the card schemes (e.g. Visa or MasterCard) to sign up merchants and process their customers' payments.

  • Refers to providers of payment methods other than the mainstream card schemes (e.g. Visa, MasterCard, American Express). Examples in Asia-Pacific include PPS in Hong Kong and eNETS in Singapore.
  • Refers to Visa and MasterCard, as the owners of a payment scheme, into which a bank or any other eligible financial institution can become a member. By becoming a member of the scheme, the member issue or acquire transactions within the scheme.
  • A Chargeback occurs when the cardholder has disputed a charge on their credit card and in most cases request the charge to be refunded. The Chargeback is then returned by the card issuer to an acquirer as a liability. The acquirer may then seek to recover this from the merchant. In essence, a Chargeback reverses a settled transaction. Normally these come about because a cardholder has disputed the transaction, there may have been fraud, a failure to deliver or processing issues.
  • Occurs when a cardholder is purchasing from a merchant that is not in the same country as that of the issued card. For example, if a cardholders Visa card is issued by an issuer in Hong Kong and a purchase is being made from a merchant registered in Singapore, the transaction is considered to be cross border and additional fees applied by the Card Schemes for processing the cross border transaction.
  • Card Verification Value (also called CSC, CSV and CVV2) is an additional security number located on the back of a credit / debit card. As an additional security measure, merchants may request the CVV value to be entered by the cardholder to confirm they are holding the card.
  • The financial institution that extends credit to customers through credit card accounts. The institution issues the credit card and receives the cardholder's payment at the end of the billing period. Also called the issuing bank or the cardholder bank. As is the case with Acquirers, issuers are licensed by the card schemes to issue cards under a card scheme brand (eg: Visa or MasterCard)
  • A percentage rate that is charged by the acquirer for processing a merchant's customer’s payment.
  • An alphanumeric identifier provided by the acquirer uniquely identifying the merchant on their systems and those of the Card Schemes

  • PCI DSS is all about keeping customers payment information safe and secure.

    Initiated by the five founding global payment brands: American Express, Discover Services, JCB International, MasterCard, and Visa, PCI DSS is a consistent data security compliance standard and approach to ensuring the safe storage and handling of card data.

    IPGPAY’s gateway is certified to the highest level of PCI DSS being Level 1

  • Special Purpose software platform that provides an interface between merchants and the acquiring institutions.

  • A purchase that involves on going charges /installments after the initial purchase has taken place eg: a monthly charity donation, quarterly digital subscription to content, or annual software license. A recurrent payment must be authorised by the cardholder at the time of the initial purchase and the recurrent payments charged to the same card.

  • A unique identifier which is configured under a MID. Each Terminal has configuration parameters set such as the Descriptor which appears on the cardholders credit card statement describing the purchase made (eg: abcwatches.com). Terminals can be single or multi currency and enforce 3-D Secure or not.

  • An amount charged by the Payment Gateway for processing each transaction such as an Authorisation, Sale or Refund. Transaction fees charged are in addition to the discount rate. For example: a merchant discount rate of 3.50% plus 15 cents per transaction.