Glossary · Finance & Payments3-D Secure (3DS)3-D Secure is an authentication protocol for online card payments that asks the cardholder's bank to verify the payer, often with an OTP or app approval.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsAadhaarAadhaar is a 12-digit identity number issued to residents of India by the UIDAI, linked to demographic and biometric data and used for identity verification.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsACH (Automated Clearing House)ACH is an electronic network in the United States that processes batched bank-to-bank transfers, such as direct deposits, bill payments and direct debits.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsAcquirer vs IssuerIn a card payment, the issuer is the bank that gave the cardholder their card, while the acquirer is the bank or provider that serves the merchant.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsAML (Anti-Money Laundering)AML is the set of laws, controls and procedures financial firms use to detect and prevent criminals from disguising illegal money as legitimate funds.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsBlockchainA blockchain is a shared, append-only ledger stored across many computers in which records are grouped into blocks that are cryptographically linked together.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsBNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later)BNPL is a short-term financing option at checkout that lets shoppers receive goods immediately and pay in several instalments, often without upfront interest.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsCard Network (Card Scheme)A card network, or scheme, is the company whose brand and rules connect issuers and acquirers so card payments can be authorised, cleared and settled.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsCard TokenizationCard tokenization replaces a card number with a unique surrogate token that is useless outside the specific merchant, device or network that issued it.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsCredit Card vs Debit CardA credit card lets you spend a bank's money up to a limit and repay later, while a debit card spends money directly from your own bank account.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsCryptocurrencyA cryptocurrency is a digital asset recorded on a distributed ledger, secured with cryptography and typically not issued or controlled by a central bank.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsCVV (Card Verification Value)A CVV is the short security code on a payment card, usually three or four digits, used to help confirm the person paying has the physical card details.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsDigiLockerDigiLocker is an Indian government cloud service where residents store and share digitally issued documents such as IDs and certificates.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsDigital Wallet (E-Wallet)A digital wallet is an app or online account that securely stores payment credentials or a prepaid balance and uses them to pay online, in apps or in stores.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsE-invoicing (Electronic Invoicing)E-invoicing is issuing invoices as structured digital data that a tax authority or approved network validates or registers before they reach the buyer.Glossary · Finance & Paymentse-KYC (Electronic Know Your Customer)e-KYC is the digital process of verifying a person's identity remotely, often by matching government-issued ID data, without paper forms or in-person visits.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsEscrowEscrow is an arrangement where a neutral third party holds money or assets until agreed conditions are met, then releases them to the right party.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsGSTIN (Goods and Services Tax Identification Number)A GSTIN is a 15-character number that uniquely identifies a business registered under India's GST, combining a state code, the PAN and a check character.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsHSN Code (Harmonized System of Nomenclature)An HSN code is a standardised numeric code that classifies goods for customs and tax, used on invoices under India's GST and in international trade.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsIBAN (International Bank Account Number)An IBAN is a standardised account number format, with a country code and check digits, used to identify bank accounts for cross-border transfers.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsIFSC (Indian Financial System Code)An IFSC is an 11-character alphanumeric code that identifies a specific bank branch in India for NEFT, RTGS and IMPS electronic transfers.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsIMPS (Immediate Payment Service)IMPS is an instant, 24x7 interbank mobile and online funds transfer service in India operated by NPCI, using account details or a mobile number.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsInterchange FeeAn interchange fee is paid by the merchant's acquirer to the cardholder's issuer on each card transaction and is usually the largest part of merchant costs.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsMDR (Merchant Discount Rate)MDR is the fee a merchant pays its acquirer on each digital payment, usually a percentage of the sale, covering interchange, network and processing costs.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsNEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer)NEFT is an Indian electronic funds transfer system, run by the RBI, that settles bank-to-bank transfers in batches rather than one transaction at a time.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsNPCI (National Payments Corporation of India)NPCI is India's umbrella organisation for retail payment systems, operating UPI, IMPS, RuPay and other platforms under oversight of the Reserve Bank of India.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce)ONDC is an Indian government-backed open protocol that lets buyer apps and seller apps on different platforms discover and transact with each other.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsOpen BankingOpen banking lets banks share customer account data and payment initiation with authorised third parties through APIs, with the customer's consent.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsOTP (One-Time Password)An OTP is a short code valid for a single login or transaction, generated by an algorithm or sent by SMS, email or an authenticator app.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsPAN (Permanent Account Number)A PAN is a 10-character alphanumeric tax identifier issued to individuals and entities in India by the Income Tax Department and shown on a PAN card.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsPayment Mandate (AutoPay)A payment mandate is a customer's standing authorisation letting a merchant debit their account or card repeatedly, as in UPI AutoPay or direct debit.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsPayment ProcessorA payment processor is a company that handles the technical and financial routing of card and other payment transactions between merchants, networks and banks.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsPCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)PCI DSS is a security standard for organisations that store, process or transmit payment card data, maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsQR PaymentA QR payment is a payment started by scanning a QR code that holds the recipient's payment details, so the payer only confirms the amount in their app.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsRecurring BillingRecurring billing is the automatic charging of a customer at regular intervals, such as monthly or yearly, for a subscription, membership or service.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsRefund (Payments)A refund is a return of money to a customer for a purchase, initiated by the merchant and sent back to the original payment method, usually after a delay.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsRemittanceA remittance is a transfer of money by a person to another party, commonly cross-border funds sent by migrant workers to family in their home country.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsRTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement)RTGS is a payment system that settles large-value transfers individually and in real time, with each transaction final and irrevocable once processed.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsRuPayRuPay is India's domestic card payment network, launched by NPCI, that issues and processes debit, credit and prepaid cards alongside international networks.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsSEPA (Single Euro Payments Area)SEPA is a European initiative under which euro bank transfers and direct debits across participating countries follow the same rules and formats.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsSettlement (Payments)Settlement is the final stage of a payment in which funds are actually transferred from the payer's bank to the merchant's bank and posted to the merchant.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsSmart ContractA smart contract is a program stored on a blockchain that runs automatically when predefined conditions are met, and whose results are recorded on the ledger.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsTDS (Tax Deducted at Source)TDS is a mechanism where the payer deducts tax from certain payments, such as salary or fees, and remits it to the government on the recipient's behalf.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsUPI (Unified Payments Interface)UPI is an instant, real-time payment system run by NPCI in India that moves money between bank accounts using a mobile app and a simple address.Glossary · Finance & PaymentsUPI ID (Virtual Payment Address)A UPI ID, or VPA, is a human-readable payment address such as name@bank that maps to a bank account so people can receive money without sharing account details.