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Card Knowledge Glossary

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A

Access Control

The process of ensuring that systems are only accessed by those authorized to do so, and only in a manner for which they have been authorized.

Account Number

A unique number assigned by a financial institution to a customer. On a credit card, this number is embossed and encoded on the plastic card.

Acquirer

A bank or company that acquires data relating to transactions from a merchant or card acceptor for processing.

Acquiring Bank

A bank that receives the credit card transactions and then settles with the issuing banks. Bank that signs up / enables the merchant to process transactions.

Address Verification Service (AVS)

A method of reducing fraud in mail order/telephone order transactions by using cardholder billing address information in the authorization request.

Alias

(See Key or Token) When used in the context of data protection, an alias acts as a surrogate for the element being protected, such as a credit card or other sensitive data.

American Express

A financial organization that issues their own charge and credit cards. American Express also performs their own transaction processing within their own processing network.

ANSI

American National Standards Institute - The organization that issues standards in the US.

API

Application program interface

Application Layer

The layer of the ISO Reference Model which provides communication between applications.

Application Security

The provision of security services within user applications running above the Application Layer of the ISO model.

Approval Response

An authorization response received when a transaction is approved.

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange - The standard system for representing letters and symbols. Each letter or symbol is assigned a unique number between 0 and 127.

Authentication

The process of assuring that data has come from its claimed source, or of corroborating the claimed identity of a communicating party.

Authorization

The act of insuring that the cardholder has adequate funds available against their line of credit. A positive authorization results in an authorization code being generated, and those funds being set aside. The cardholder's available credit limit is reduced by the authorized amount.

Authorization Amount

Dollar amount approved

Authorization Code

A code that an issuer or its authorizing processor provides to indicate approval or denial for an authorization request.

Authorization Date

Date and Time that transaction was authorized

Authorization Only

A transaction created to reserve an amount against a credit card's available limit for intended purchases; the settlement may occur within three to five days, depending on the card type.

Authorized Amount

Dollar amount approved

Authorized Transactions

Transaction that has been approved

AVS

See Address Verification Service.

B

Bank Account

Bank account number for the merchant to which funds will be deposited.

Bank Identification Number (Bin)

The first six digits of a Visa or MasterCard account number. This number is used to identify the card issuing institution.

Bankcard

A payment card issued by a bank.

BIN

See Bank Identification Number.

C

Calcard

Name of the California Purchasing Card program. Currently, the card issuer is US Bank and the program features a Visa commercial card.

Card Issuer

Any association member financial institution, bank, credit union, or company that issues, or causes to be issued, plastic cards to cardholders.

Card Reader

A device capable of reading the encoding on plastic cards. See Magnetic Stripe Reader.

Cardhholder Information Security Program (CISP)

An information security standard sponsored and promoted by Visa USA that applies to any organization that stores or handles their credit card account numbers.

Cardholder

An individual to whom a card is issued, or who is authorized to use an issued card.

Certificate

A digital identifier linking an entity and a trusted third party able to confirm the entity's identity.

Certification Authority (CA)

A trusted entity issuing certificates confirming the identity of, or given facts associated with, the certificate's subject

Chargeback

A transaction returned through interchange by an issuer to an acquirer. A transaction may be returned because it was non-compliant with the association rules and regulations or because it was disputed by a cardholder.

Chargeback Period

The number of days from the processing date or endorsement date transaction during which the issuer may initiate a chargeback.

CISP

CISP is an acronym for Cardholder Information Security Program. An information security standard sponsored and promoted by Visa USA that applies to any organization that stores or handles their credit card account numbers.

Commerce Service Provider (CSP)

Supplies the system and services to establish the back-office infrastructure for businesses. Major aspects include: the processing of secure transactions, the developing and managing of customer relationships, the collecting of payment, and the delivering of products or services over the Web. A CSP may provide the following services: buyer authentication, order taking, details of what is for sale in an electronic offer, validation, payment processing (via traditional credit card payment processors), and generation of electronic receipts. Fulfillment may be made of electronic goods or physical goods. See also electronic commerce.

Commercial Card

Commercial cards are the broad definition of a special class of credit or bank card. They differ from consumer cards in that they frequently offer Level-3 (level III) line item detail information and special usage controls to the corporate or governmental user. Another frequently used term is corporate card.

Commercial Cards

A general name for cards typically issued for business use and may include Corporate Cards, Purchase Cards, Business Cards, Travel and Entertainment Cards.

Compensating Control

A technique or methodology considered when an entity cannot meet a requirement explicitly as stated, due to legitimate technical or documented business constraints but has sufficiently mitigated the risk associated with the requirement through implementation of other controls. Compensating controls must 1) meet the intent and rigor of the original stated PCI DSS requirement; 2) repel a compromise attempt with similar force; 3) be "above and beyond" other PCI DSS requirements (not simply in compliance with other PCI DSS requirements); and 4) be commensurate with the additional risk imposed by not adhering to the PCI DSS requirement

Cookie

A small amount of information stored on a client computer by a Web site that is sent back to the site each time the user visits it. The use of cookies to maintain persistent, client-side state information significantly extends the capabilities of Web-based client/server applications.

Corporate Card

Corporate cards are essentially the same as commercial cards. The broad definition encompasses specific types of card programs such as travel cards, fleet cards, and purchasing cards (or purchase cards, or procards).

Corporate Procurement Card

Corporate procurement cards are one type of corporate card. They are typically issued to individuals that have the authority to make purchases on behalf of their organization. The cards are centrally billed to the card-holder's organization.

Corporate Purchasing Card

Corporate Purchasing Card is another name for corporate procurement card (or procard).

CPS

See Custom Payment Service.

Credit Card Gateway

Credit card, or internet payment, B220.

Credit Card Number

Unique number assigned to credit card

Credit Card Processing

The general term for processing transactions against bankcards according to terms defined by Visa and MasterCard.

Credit Card Processor

A company that performs authorization and settlement of credit card payments, usually handling several types of credit and payment cards (such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express). If merchants wish to sell their products to cardholders, they retain the services of one or more processors who handle the credit cards that the merchant wishes to accept. When a merchant retains the services of a credit card processor, it is issued a merchant ID.

Credit Limit

The dollar amount assigned to a cardholder to which they are approved to borrow.

CRL

A Certificate Revocation List -- a database of certificates no longer valid within a given security infrastructure

Cryptographic Key

A mathematical term or other parameter used to define how a given algorithm will transform data into ciphertext

Cryptography

The art or science of transforming clear, meaningful information into an enciphered, unintelligible form using an algorithm and a key.

Currency

Default is USD for U.S. dollars. This feature will be used when non-U.S. dollars are used in a transaction

Custom Payment Service (CPS)

Visa's regulations for the information that must be submitted with each transaction. Transactions must meet CPS criteria in order to qualify for lowest transaction processing fees available. Similar to MasterCard's Merit system.

Customer Code

A 17 character alphanumeric field that is used with Purchase Card transactions. The code is typically defined by the customer (cardholder) and used for accounting or project tracking purposes.