Finance & Payments
Payment rails, cross-border transfers, FX and merchant compliance terminology.
ACH
ACH is a US batch-based electronic funds transfer network, operated under NACHA rules, that moves money between bank accounts for payroll, bill payments, direct debits and vendor payouts.
Chargeback
A chargeback is a forced reversal of a card payment, initiated by a customer through their card-issuing bank rather than directly with the merchant, used to dispute unauthorised, fraudulent or unsatisfactory transactions.
FX Spread
An FX spread is the margin a currency provider adds between the mid-market exchange rate and the rate it actually offers customers, effectively embedding its revenue into the exchange rate rather than as a separate visible fee.
IBAN
An IBAN is an internationally standardised format for identifying bank accounts across country borders, combining a country code, check digits and domestic account details into a single reference.
Merchant of Record
A Merchant of Record is the entity that is legally and financially responsible for a transaction — processing the payment, remitting applicable sales tax or VAT, and handling chargebacks — even though the underlying product or service belongs to a different business.
Multi-Currency Account
A multi-currency account is a financial account that allows a user to hold balances in multiple currencies simultaneously, and to receive or send payments in those currencies, typically without needing a separate local bank account in each country.
Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is the software layer that securely captures payment details at checkout and passes them to the payment processor and card networks for authorisation, without the merchant ever directly handling raw card data.
PCI DSS
PCI DSS is an industry-mandated set of security standards created by major card networks, defining the technical and operational requirements businesses must meet to store, process or transmit cardholder data securely.
SWIFT
SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is a secure messaging network connecting banks and financial institutions worldwide, used to send standardised instructions for international payments.
Wire Transfer
A wire transfer is a direct, real-time or same-day transfer of funds between banks, processed individually rather than in a batch, commonly used for large domestic or cross-border payments.