Glossary of Industry Terms

A • B • C • D • E • F • G • H • I • J • K • L • M • N • O • P • Q • R • S • T • U • V • W • X • Y • Z

Search Term:
Include special terms? Include Show selected special terms only
PCI Related Terms Technical Terms

ID

Identity of an individual, or other entity. ID is typically associated with another term to specify they type of identity, such as Transaction ID, Merchant ID, Tax ID, etc.

IDS

(PCI) (Technical) See Intrusion Detection Systems.

IETF

(Technical) See Internet Engineering Task Force.

The process of manually making a print of the embossed information from a credit or debit card. It typically appears as part of the sales draft. This proves that the card was present when the sale was made. Note: An imprint can be created electronically if you use a magnetic-stripe-reading terminal that includes the correct point-of-sale (POS) entry code. This is required in a face to face processing environment where a magnetic swipe card reader is unavailable to swipe a credit card or a receipt printer is unavailable.

Imprinter

The now old fashioned manual (or electric), slide type device used to produce an image of the raised (embossed) characters on a credit card, to a transaction slip. All merchants should have a manual imprinter for cases that demand a physical imprint.

Independent Contractor

An independent contractor is a sales person that may work for one or more Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs).

Outside of the payments business, it also refers to any person not directly affiliated with another organization that is offering consulting or other services.

See also Independent Sales Organization.

Independent Sales Organization

A company that is registered with Visa to represent a financial institution for the purpose providing a variety of processing functions/services to merchants on behalf of an acquirer. These functions can also include selling new merchant accounts or providing back-office/backroom services. It is important that the acquirer must register all ISOs/MSPs with bankcard associations. AN ISO represents the acquirer (processor) and markets the service in exchange for transaction fees or a percentage of sales that the ISO receives from the processor. There are many different levels of ISO’s available to merchants. Many are only agents of an ISO while others have a direct relationship with the processor.

These entities are classic Middle Men, as they are typically not performing the services sold. They typically match the banking services they sell with “Front End” solutions for accepting transactions in order to offer merchants a working system.
Their Front End Systems can be anything from Verifone or Hypercom POS Terminals to PC based Dial-Out Credit Card Processing Software, to Shopping Carts paired with a Secure Payment Gateway. (In all cases, the Front End solution must be compatible with the Processor in order to function.)

Outside of the payments industry, ISO refers to a standards organization (International Standards Organization).

An I.S.O. can also be referred to as an M.S.P. (Merchant Service Provider).

Information Security

(PCI) (Technical)

Protection of information to insure confidentiality, integrity, and availability

Information System

(PCI) (Technical)

Discrete set of structured data resources organized for collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of information

Ingress

(PCI) (Technical)

Traffic entering the network from across a communications link and the customer\'s network

Integrated Point of Sale

Refers to conventional terminals that are “smarter” and more sophisticated in that they may be setup to communicate with like terminals owned by the same merchant even if they are located at different locations and with different merchant numbers.

Interchange

In regard to Associations: The term “interchange” refers to both a process and the fee for that process, which involves Visa or MasterCard taking a percentage of retail transactions where a credit or signature debit card is used for payment.

Outside of associations: A standard format for sharing or transferring data electronically between parties that do not share a common application. Usually a format that is platform-independent is agreed upon as a standard. Examples of common interchange formats include EDI (electronic data interchange), ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), and GIF (graphics interchange format).

Interchange Fee

A term that is used in the credit card and banking industries to describe the predetermined amount that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank) pays a customer’s bank (the “issuing bank”) when merchants accept cards that use major credit card networks such as MasterCard, Visa or Discover for sales transactions.

Because there are dozens of different rates and fees that can be assessed to the Merchant, some processors and Merchant Services Providers have bundled various rates together into “Rate Tiers”. Tiers are usually more simplistic than Interchange Fees in their naming, such as “Qualified”, “Mid-Qualified” and “Non-Qualified”. While this may seem simpler to understand, it does not provide a great deal of detail to the Merchant to understand what they are actually paying for and why.

A transaction is assigned to an interchange category and associated rate/fee based upon a variety of categories such as card types, industry types, processing environment, and timeliness of the transaction. There is a set of Interchange rates for all Visa and MasterCard acquiring and issuing financial institutions. The Interchange fee is calculated from the transaction amount and interchange category rate.

See also Interchange.

See also Interchange Rate.

Interchange Rate

The rate that is set and charged by the bankcard association to the acquiring banks for the transaction associated with an Interchange Category. The interchange rate, which is actually a percentage of the transaction amount plus a fixed fee, also helps account for authorization costs, fraud and the general or average banks cost of funds. The Interchange Rate is used to calculate the Interchange Fee by multiplying the transaction amount by the rate % and adding the Interchange rate flat amount. For example, the ERIF (Electronic Interchante Reimbursement Fee, Debit) rate is 1.75% + $0.20.

See also Interchange.

See also Interchange Fee.

Interchange Reimbursement Fee

One of the following:

A fee that an acquirer pays to an issuer in the clearing and settlement of an interchange transaction, based on either the standard (paper-based) rate or electronic rate.
A fee that an issuer pays to an acquirer for making a cash disbursement to a cardholder or check purchaser.

International Standards Organization

(Technical)

Non-governmental organization consisting of a network of the national standards institutes of over 150 countries, with one member per country and a central secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland that coordinates the system

Internet

See Business Type.

A global public network consisting of millions of interconnected computers all linked together using the Internet Protocol. Also called the World Wide Web.

Internet commerce

A term that covers all commercial transaction activity on the Internet.

Internet Engineering Task Force

(Technical)

Large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with evolution of Internet architecture and smooth operation of Internet. Open to any interested individual

Internet Merchant

See Business Type.

Internet Merchant Account

A Merchant Account is a relationship between a retailing company and a Merchant Bank, which allows the retailer to accept credit card payments from customers via the Internet.

Internet Payment Gateway Service

Provides merchants the ability to process payments via the internet.

Internet protocol

(PCI) (Technical)

Network-layer protocol containing address information and some control information that enables packets to be routed. IP is the primary network-layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite

Internet Protocol address

(Technical)

Numeric code that uniquely identifies a particular computer on the Internet

Internet Protocol Security

(PCI) (Technical)

Standard for securing IP communications by encrypting and/or authenticating all IP packets. IPSEC provides security at the network layer

Internet Service Provider

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are the Web Site Hosting companies that provide a home for merchant’s web sites. They typically resell and/or support the services of a Secure Gateway Provider and/or ISO or Agent or Bank.

They also internet access to individuals (examples include AOL, Cable companies (COXNET),many telephone companies, etc).

Intranet

An internal network of computers that can only be accessed by other computers on the same network. This is typically within a company for employee access of corporate information.

Intrusion Detection Systems

(PCI) (Technical)

Used to identify and alert on network or system intrusion attempts. Composed of sensors which generate security events; a console to monitor events and alerts and control the sensors; and a central engine that records events logged by the sensors in a database. Uses system of rules to generate alerts in response to security events detected. An IPS takes the additional step of blocking the attempted intrusion.

(PCI) (Technical) See also Internet Protocol Security.

Invoice Number

A merchant-defined alphanumeric field that prints on the customer receipt. The invoice number is also required to help qualify a hand keyed transaction for the lowest possible Interchange level

IP

(PCI) (Technical) See Internet protocol.

IP address

(Technical) See Internet Protocol address.

IP Spoofing

(PCI) (Technical)

Technique used by an intruder to gain unauthorized access to computers. Intruder sends deceptive messages to a computer with an IP address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted host

IPGS

See Internet Payment Gateway Service.

IPOS

See Integrated Point of Sale.

IPSec

(PCI) (Technical) See Internet Protocol Security.

ISO

See Independent Sales Organization.

(Technical) See International Standards Organization.

ISO 8583

(Technical)

Established standard for communication between financial systems and many processors, although the details of the standard vary by institution that utilizes it (Visa, MasterCard, BuyPass, etc.).

ISP

See Internet Service Provider.

Issuer

A financial institution that issues credit cards to customers.

Issuing Bank

Any association member financial institution, bank, credit union, or company that issues, or causes to be issued, plastic cards to cardholders. For instance, bank members that enters into a contractual agreement with MasterCard to issue MasterCard® cards. The bank that maintains the consumer\'s credit card account and must pay out to the merchant\'s account in a credit card purchase. The issuing bank then bills the customer for the debt.

Also known as the Issuer.