Plain-English definitions of AI, accounting, and SaaS-finance terms.
An electronic bank-to-bank transfer processed through the Automated Clearing House network, used for payroll, bill payments, and business transactions.
Simultaneous purchase and sale of equivalent assets to profit from price discrepancies across markets.
U.S. primary anti-money laundering law requiring financial institutions to assist in detecting and preventing financial crimes.
Grouping payment transactions for processing together at scheduled intervals rather than individually in real time.
Identification of natural persons who ultimately own or control a legal entity above a defined ownership threshold.
Distributed ledger technology applied to financial transactions for transparency, immutability, and disintermediation.
Point-of-sale financing allowing consumers to split purchases into installments, often interest-free.
Process of verifying customer identity and assessing risk before and during a financial relationship.
A forced reversal of a payment transaction initiated by a customer through their bank, placing the financial liability back on the merchant.
Payment via tap, NFC, or QR code without requiring physical card insertion or swiping.
Financial transaction where payer and recipient are in different countries, requiring currency conversion or international routing.
Fee charged when converting between currencies in a payment transaction, including exchange rate margin.
More intensive customer due diligence applied to higher-risk customers, including PEPs and high-risk jurisdictions.
Payment card microprocessor chip generating a unique cryptogram for each transaction, preventing card fraud.
The integration of financial services — payments, lending, banking, or insurance — directly into non-financial platforms and software products.
International standards from the Financial Action Task Force setting AML and counter-terrorism financing requirements.
Using financial instruments to reduce currency risk exposure on foreign-denominated revenues or expenses.
The time gap between when a payment is initiated and when funds are actually debited or credited, creating a temporary balance discrepancy.
International Bank Account Number standardizing account identification for cross-border transactions.
Global financial messaging standard enabling richer, more structured payment data across institutions.
The fee paid by a merchant's bank to a cardholder's bank for processing a card transaction, forming the largest component of merchant payment processing costs.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard — a set of security requirements for organizations that handle cardholder data, mandated by card networks.
Entity that aggregates merchant payment acceptance under a master account, enabling sub-merchant onboarding.
Software infrastructure that processes, verifies, and authorizes online and in-person payment transactions between merchants and customers.
Confidential report filed by financial institutions with FinCEN when they detect potentially illegal activity.
Single Euro Payments Area enabling standardized electronic payments across 36 European countries.
Unique identifier (BIC) for financial institutions used in international wire transfers.
Process of checking customers, counterparties, and transactions against government sanctions lists to prevent prohibited activity.
Bank guarantee drawn only if an obligor fails to fulfill a contractual or financial obligation.
