6 Sigma: 6 Sigma is a quality standard. It is a statistical definition; its basis is the percentage of a company"s products and activities that are error-free. The sigma value indicates how well a process is performing, and the higher the sigma the better. This is because the sigma measures the capability of the process to perform error free work, where an error is anything that causes customer dissatisfaction.
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.
Accountability: One of the GE Leadership values. To set and reach aggressive targets recognizes and rewards progress; understands accountability and commitment.
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.
Action Work-Outs: A particular type of Work-Out session, which aims to solve a known problem in one quick session. The objective is an immediate action plan that requires little or no approvals at senior manager level. When the meeting is held, the team can create and implement a solution immediately. Provisions to measure the impact of the changes are also implemented so that the team can assess its success.
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.
Affinity Loans: Affinity Loans are revolving or fixed closed-end lines of credit offered to members of affinity groups such as automobile associations, teacher associations, and other organizations.
Affinity Card: A credit card endorsed by groups such as colleges, sports teams, professional organizations, or special interest groups that are offered to their alumni, fans or members.
Agreement: Your card issuer will send you a cardholder agreement that describes the terms that apply to your card, including the interest rate charged, method of calculating interest and any transaction fees.
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.
Amount Due: The minimum monthly payment you must make.
Annual Fees: Some card issuers may charge you a yearly fee in addition to the interest that accumulates when you make purchases.
Annual Percentage Rate: The APR is a measure of the cost of credit, expressed as a yearly rate. It also must be disclosed before you become obligated on the account and on your account statements.
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 that 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.
ATM Card: A card used in an automated teller machine (ATM) that may access a credit or a debit account to complete banking inquiries and fund transfers between accounts.
Authentication: The process of assuring that data has come from its claimed source, or of corroborating the claimed identity of a communicating party.
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: 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.
Authorized Amount: Dollar amount approved.
Authorized Transactions: Transaction that has been approved.
Auto Leasing and Loans: Auto Leasing is the financing primarily for the leasing of new cars. Lease terms range from 12 to 54 months.
Available Credit: The unused portion of credit that falls within the consumer"s applicable credit limit, if any.
Average Daily Balance Method: This is one of the most common computation methods that credit card issuers use to calculate account balance. To figure the balance due, the issuer totals the beginning balance for each day in the billing period and subtracts any credits made to your account that day. While new purchases may or may not be added to the balance, depending on your plan, cash advances typically are included. The resulting daily balances are added for the billing cycle. The total is then divided by the number of days in the billing period to get the "average daily balance."
AVS: See Address Verification Service.
Balance: The amount of money you owe the card issuer, including purchases, fees, interest and transaction charges.
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.
Benchmarking: Collecting information about how other departments/companies carry out activities similar to those done by your company. This information can then be used to help your company to improve its own processes and procedures in line with its overall business objectives.
Best Practice: Inside and outside our business, people are always finding better ways of doing things. Within GE, these "Best Practices" range from a more effective way to handle customer calls to methods for reducing waste to strategies for structuring more profitable deals. Opportunities to identify and share Best Practices occur daily. Continually seeking the best solutions for our clients, consumers and our bottom line is part of everyone"s job. By sharing those solutions, with all other GE companies, we ensure that the entire organization can quickly capitalize on their value.
Billing Cycle: The length of time between billing statements. A billing cycle is typically 30 days.
BIN: See Bank Identification Number.
Bottom Line: Operating margins / net income
Boundaryless Company: Where the artificial barriers and walls people build around themselves for status and security are demolished.
Breakouts: Occur when a training course/conference is broken into smaller groups for each group to work on a particular aspect of the topic being covered.
Business Card (Business Credit Card): These credit cards are generally issued to corporate executives or business owners so that they can keep business expenses separate from personal charges more easily.
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.
Cardholder: An individual to whom a card is issued, or who is authorized to use an issued card.
Cash Advance: You can use your card at a bank or an automatic teller machine to get a cash loan. The interest rate for a cash advance is typically higher than it is for purchases, and there is usually no grace period. There can also be a handling fee for withdrawing cash in addition to the interest charges, which can raise the cost significantly.
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.
Charge Card: One major difference between credit card and charge card is that charge card must be paid in full every month. An example of a charge card is American Express card.
Chargeback Period: The number of days from the processing date or endorsement date transaction during which the issuer may initiate a chargeback.
Chargeback: A transaction returned through interchange by an issuer to an acquirer. A transaction may be returned because of it was non-compliant with the association rules and regulations or because it was disputed by a cardholder.
Closing Date: The last day that transactions are posted on your account for that month.
Commercial Loans: Loan products that are offered to small and medium-sized businesses.
Co-Branded Visa/MasterCard Programs: Include consumer financing cards such as MasterCard, Visa and other co-branded products, that provide consumers with a revolving line of credit for purchases.
Collection Agency: A company that will attempt to obtain payment from you. If this happens, your account may be listed as a "collection account" on your credit report. If you do not pay your bill and your card issuer has to go to a collection agency to attempt to obtain payment from you, you may be liable for the cost of the collection agency"s services. Check your cardholder agreement to see if your card includes this potential fee.
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 Cards: A general name for cards typically issued for business use and may include Corporate Cards, Purchase Cards, Business Cards, Travel and Entertainment Cards.
Compliance: see Integrity
CORE: Credit, Operations and Risk Education. This is an interactive training tool that was developed exclusively for GE Consumer Finance. It walks you through the deal review process; through all the authorization levels right the way up to the Chief Executive Officer.
Corporate Cards: Corporate travel & purchasing cards for large companies.
Co-signer: A parent or any person over 18 years old who agrees to share credit responsibilities and pay debts.
Cost Center: An alphanumeric code that identifies the business component, department within a component and type of expense
CPS: See Custom Payment Service.
Credit Bureau: A credit bureau keeps a record of your credit history for any card or loan issuer to review when considering your application for credit. The three major credit reporting agencies in the United States are Equifax, Experian (formerly TRW) and Trans Union.
Credit Card Number: Unique number assigned to credit card.
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 Card. Unlike charge cards, credit cards allow you to "revolve" your charges. A credit card allows you to make partial payments for purchases, but charges interest on the amount owed. You can also pay your balance off in full to avoid interest payments. Banks and other card issuers set interest rates and fees. To protect your credit rating, be sure to pay at least the minimum amount due by the payment due date.
Credit Counseling: Advice given by professional counselors to people about how to use credit responsibly and how to get out of serious debt.
Credit Limit. The maximum amount you may charge on a credit card. Under some circumstances, your card issuer may increase or decrease your credit line.
Credit Line: Same as credit limit.
Credit Report. This is record of your credit history usually use to help creditors judge your creditworthiness. It shows whether you pay your bills on time, how much debt you have, etc. Your report is compiled by credit bureaus and released to lenders and others. It is important to check your credit reports regularly to catch possible human errors and prevent credit frauds.
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.
CSA - Customized Service Agreement: These material solution agreements focus on bringing value to the customer. GEAE works with airline maintenance customers to evaluate their business situations and find ways to optimize their performance both from a material and parts standpoint.
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.
D & B Duns Number: Dun & Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System. A unique 9 digit code that identifies and links more than 57 million companies worldwide.
Daily Periodic Rate. your annual interest rate expressed on a daily basis. It equals 1/365th of your annual percentage rate.
Data Capture: Also known as electronic draft capture (EDC) or draft capture. A data processing term for collecting, formatting, and storing data in computer memory according to predefined fields, for example, customer name, account number, and dollar amount of purchase. When a terminal reads this information from a plastic card or from entries at a terminal, the information is stored in computer memory for later output as a hard copy printout or as soft copy on a CRT display. See Electronic Draft Capture.
Data Encryption Standard (DES): DES. A cryptographic algorithm adopted by the National Bureau of Standards for data security. The algorithm encrypts or decrypts 64 bits of data using a 56-bit key. See also Triple DES.
Data Integrity: Measures to prevent unauthorized alteration of data.
Debit Card. A debit card deducts the amount of your purchase directly from your checking account.
Debit: A charge to a customer"s bankcard account. A transaction, such as a check, automated teller machine (ATM) withdrawal, or point-of-sale (POS) debit purchase that debits a demand deposit account.
Deciphering: Conversion of ciphertext back into plaintext.
Decryption Key: See key.
Decryption: Decryption is the process of transforming ciphertext back into plaintext. It is the reverse of encryption.
Delayering: Reducing the number of numbers of levels of management etc. in a company"s organizational structure. This is usually done to encourage empowerment and involvement of employees, and to create a leaner, fitter business.
Deposit: Process of transmitting a batch of transactions from the merchant to the acquiring institution in preparation for settlement.
DES: Data Encryption Standard. A cryptographic algorithm adopted by the National Bureau of Standards for data security. The algorithm encrypts or decrypts 64 bits of data using a 56-bit key. See also Triple DES.
Digital Signature: A data element allowing the recipient of a message or transaction to verify the content and sender.
Discount Fee: Fee paid by the merchant to the merchant bank or other contracted party for processing the merchant"s credit card sales (transactions).
Discount Rate: This is the percentage rate that a merchant institution charges the merchant giving deposit credit for handling merchant sales drafts or electronic sales transmissions. The discount fee is the dollar amount charged.
Draft Capture: The act of electronically capturing transactions. See Electronic Draft Capture.
DSA: Digital Signature Algorithm - the algorithm used in creating the digital signature for a given message or transaction.
Due Date. The day a payment is due to a creditor.
EDC: See Electronic Draft Capture.
EDI: Electronic Data Interchange - The process conducting business electronically using a set of standardized forms and data formatting.
Electronic Authorization: Obtaining authorization for use of a credit card by electronic means, as via computer equipment and telephone line.
Electronic Commerce: A system of integrated communications, data management, and security services that allow business applications within different organizations to automatically interchange information.
Electronic Draft Capture (EDC): EDC is a point-of-sale terminal that reads the information encoded in the magnetic stripe of bankcards. These terminals electronically authorize and capture transaction data, eliminating the need for a paper deposit.
Empowerment: This GE Value has now been replaced by "Involvement", i.e. to hand over decision making to the people doing the job.
Enciphering: Conversion of plain data into encrypted data (plaintext into ciphertext).
Encryption: Encryption is the process of disguising a message (using mathematical formulas called algorithms) in such a way as to hide its substance, a process of creating secret writing.
End-to-end Security: Application of security measures consistently across a whole data system or process, leaving no weak points.
Energy/Stimulates Change: A GE value that means that you respond quickly to requests, energies and invigorate other people. You also initiate and are stimulated by change, seeing it as an opportunity not a threat.
Equal Credit Opportunity Act. This federal law protects your rights against being denied credit because of sex, race, color, age, national origin, or religion. For example, a creditor cannot ask you to reapply, close your account or change terms of a loan if you become widowed or divorced. Income from pensions, annuities or part-time employment may not be excluded by a creditor in evaluating a consumer"s creditworthiness.
Expired Card: A card on which the embossed, encoded, or printed expiration date has passed.
Factoring: GE Consumer Finance provides a broad range of factoring services that enable you to improve cash flow, lower your borrowing needs and improve your financial performance. This program is often used in the apparel industry where there is a delay from the time an order is completed and shipped to a customer to the receipt of payment.
Fair Credit Billing Act. This federal act protects many credit rights, including your rights to dispute billing errors, unauthorized use of your account, and charges for unsatisfactory goods and services.
Finance Charge: Interest, transaction fees and service fees.
Financial Management Program: FMP is an intensive, two to two-and-a-half year program of on-the-job experience combined with formal classroom training. Typically, it includes rotations approximately every six months into a new assignment. FMPs commitment to formal education is equally strong. The program includes a series of courses, seminars, and orientation sessions developed by business professionals.
Fiscal Calendar: The fiscal year is composed of 52 weeks, divided into four equal quarters of 13 weeks with each quarter consisting of three fiscal months. At present, the first month of each quarter has five weeks, the remaining two have four weeks each.
Fixed APR. A fixed APR does not change based on changes in an index.
Floor Limit: An amount that Visa and MasterCard have established for single transactions at specific types of merchant outlets and branches, above which authorization is required.
Fraudulent Transaction: A transaction unauthorized by the cardholder of a bankcard. Such transactions are categorized as lost, stolen, not received, issued on a fraudulent application, counterfeit, fraudulent processing of transactions, account takeover, or other fraudulent conditions as defined by the card company or the member company.
Fraudulent User: An individual who is not the cardholder or designee and who uses a card (or, in a mail/phone order or recurring transaction, an account number) to obtain goods or services without the cardholder"s consent.
Grace Period: The period of time, generally 20 to 25 days, from the billing date of your last credit card bill to the due date of your current bill, when you can pay in full without being charged interest.
Independent Service Organization (ISO): ISO. In the payment systems industry, a third party organization that facilitates merchant registration to accept charge or credit cards.
Integrity: Everyday, GE counts on every employee to perform his or her job with the highest integrity. The Integrity Code of Conduct is a statement of the broad principles by which of how they do that. The Code calls for all employees to: - obey applicable laws and regulations governing our business conduct worldwide- be honest, fair and trustworthy in all of our GE activities and relationships- avoid all conflicts of interest between work and personal affairs- foster an atmosphere in which equal opportunity extends to every member of the diverse GE community- strive to create a safe workplace and to protect the environment- through leadership at all levels, sustain a culture where ethical conduct is recognized, valued and exemplified by all employees.
Interchange Fee: A fee paid by the acquiring bank/merchant bank to the issuing bank. The fee compensates the issuer for the time after settlement with the acquiring bank/merchant bank and before it recoups the settlement value from the cardholder.
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.
Interchange: The exchange of information, transaction data and money among banks. Interchange systems are managed by Visa and MasterCard associations according to their requirements and are very standardized so banks and merchants worldwide can use them.
Interest: A charge for borrowed money, generally a percentage of the amount owed.
Introductory APR: A temporary interest rate (expressed as a yearly rate) offered by card issuers to "introduce" you to their services. It will usually go up after a certain amount of time (usually 6 months).
Inventory Financing: Helps to move and manage big ticket inventory through product distribution channels.
ISO: Independent Service Organization. In the payment systems industry, a third party organization that facilitates merchant registration to accept charge or credit cards.
Issuer: Any association member financial institution, bank, credit union, or company that issues, or causes to be issued, plastic cards to cardholders.
Key: When used in the context of encryption, a series of numbers which are used by an encryption algorithm to transform plaintext data into encrypted (ciphertext) data, and vice versa.
Leasing: Helps finance purchase of equipment for your business.
Level 3: Level-3 (also known as Level III, Level 3, or Level-III) line-item detail is a data specification designed to support business-to-business and business-to-government credit card use. Level-3 line item detail provides specific purchase information such as Item Description, Quantity, Unit of Measure, Price, and more. This information is very useful to cardholding organizations to help streamline accounting and business practices and to merge payment data with electronic procurement systems.
Loyalty Programs: Range from offering incentives for customers to use the store card to full retain initiatives that incent customers to purchase items regardless of the customer's form of payment.
Magnetic Stripe: A stripe of magnetic information affixed to the back of a plastic credit or debit card. It contains customer and account information required to complete electronic financial transactions. The physical and magnetic characteristics of this stripe are specified in the International Organization for Standardization standards 7810, 7811, and 7813.
Magnetic-stripe Reader: A device that reads information from the magnetic stripe and transmits that information to a transaction processor or computer terminal. Also referred to as card reader.
Magnetic-stripe Terminal: A terminal that reads the magnetic stripe on a plastic card.
Mail/phone Order Merchant: A merchant that transacts business by mail or phone.
Mail/phone Order Transaction: A transaction where a cardholder orders goods or services from a merchant by telephone, mail or other means of telecommunication. Neither the card nor the cardholder is present at the merchant outlet.
Management Award: A monetary award given as part of the Reward and Recognition Process. Awarded to those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the businesses, exhibiting teamwork, creativity , working "above and beyond" what was required, with a successful result.
Market Capitalization: One measurement to assess a company"s value. It is calculated by multiplying the number of issued shares by the market price. In 1994 GE was the most valuable US company and the third n the world by this measurement.
Mastercard Acquirer: A member that signs a MasterCard merchant or disburses currency to a MasterCard cardholder in a cash disbursement, and directly or indirectly enters the resulting transaction receipt into interchange.
Mastercard Card: A card that bears the MasterCard symbol, enabling a MasterCard cardholder to obtain goods, services, or cash from a MasterCard merchant or an acquirer.
Mastercard Issuer: A member that issues MasterCard cards.
Mastercard: MasterCard International Inc., and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Merchant Agreement: A written agreement between a merchant and a bank containing their respective rights, duties, and warranties with respect to acceptance of the bankcard and matters related to the bankcard activity.
Merchant Bank: Bank that has a merchant agreement with a merchant to accept (acquire) deposits generated by bankcard transactions.
Merchant Category Code: Four-digit classification codes used in the warning bulletin, authorization, clearing, and settlement systems to identify the type of merchant business in various stages of transaction processing.
Merchant Depository Account: Demand deposit account established by a merchant with the acquiring bank to receive payment for sales drafts submitted to the bank card plan.
Merchant Id: In the credit card industry, a merchant ID is a number provided to a merchant by a credit card processor when that merchant retains the services of that processor. Also sometimes called the merchant number.
Merchant Number: A series or group of digits that uniquely identifies the merchant to the merchant signing bank for account and billing purposes.
Merchant: An entity that contracts with merchant banks or ISO"s to originate transactions.
Merit: MasterCard"s requirements for obtaining favorable interchange rates. Similar to CPS requirements by Visa.
Minimum Payment. The minimum amount you are required to pay the credit card issuer each month.
MO / TO: See Mail Order / Telephone Order
Monthly Statement. Each billing cycle (usually once per month) your card issuer will send you a bill. The bill will detail the activity on your account for that billing cycle.
Multiple Transaction Processing (Multi-Trans): Electronic communications process where multiple authorization requests and responses are exchanged during a single phone connection with the third-party transaction processor.
NAICS Code: North American Industry Classification System. Common industry definitions for Canada, Mexico and the United States. This system is replacing the SIC Code system.
Online Financial Transaction: A transaction that is authorized, cleared, and settled in a single online message.
On-us Transaction: A transaction where the issuer and the acquirer are the same. An "on-us" check would be one in which a depositor"s check is presented for payment at the same financial institution that carries the account on which the check is written.
Open To Buy Amount: Dollar amount of credit remaining for customer at the time of authorization.
Order Number: A 17 character alphanumeric field that may be used between the Cardholder and the Merchant for accounting or tracking purposes.
Outsourcing: This involves giving a task, (for which you still remain responsible), to somebody outside your team/location or company..
Overlimit: This refers to a cardholder"s account that has surpassed its credit limit with a transaction. (Their outstanding balance is beyond their credit limit.):
Paper Draft: Sales slips, credit slips, cash disbursement slips, drafts, vouchers, and other obligations indicating use of a card or a card account.
Past Due. When you do not make at least the minimum payment on time, your account is considered past due.
Per Transaction Fees: Fees paid by the merchant to the merchant bank or other contracted party on a per transaction basis.
Performance (or Risk Based) APR: It is similar to a variable APR but it is based on your payment performance. APR may go up because of a late payment or late payments; conversely, it may go back to the standard APR if you send your payments on time for a certain period of time (typically one year).
PIN: Personal Identification Number - A sequence of digits used to verify the identity of the holder of a token. It is a kind of password.
Pitch: A presentation to internal or external personnel, on an aspect of the business, department or function, in which you work. Usually must be in a pre-determined layout and format.
PKI: Public Key Infrastructure - the total system used in verifying, enrolling and certifying users of a security application.
Plastic (Card): This is a generic term used to identify any of the various cards issued to cardholders.
PLCC: Private Label Credit Card.
Point Of Sale (POS): Location in a merchant establishment at which the sale is consummated by payment for goods or services received.
Policy: An informal, generally natural language description of desired system behavior. Policies may be defined for particular requirements, such as confidentiality, integrity, availability, safety, etc.
POS System: A system that processes commercial transactions such as an credit card terminal, electronic cash register, or specialized software.
Posting: The process of updating individual cardholder account balances to reflect merchandise sales, instant cash, cash advances, adjustments, payments, and any other charges or credits.
Presentment: A clearing record that an acquirer presents to an issuer through interchange, either initially (a first presentment) or after a chargeback (a re-presentment).
Previous Balance: This is the amount you owed at the end of the previous billing period.
Primary Account Number (PAN): The number that is embossed, encoded, or both, on a plastic card that identifies the issuer and the particular cardholder account.
Prime Rate: This rate is what banks charge their best commercial customers for loans.
Principal: Principal reflects the actual dollar amount of the purchases you made, or the balance that remains on your loan or credit card account.
Prior Authorization: An authorization usually done before a transaction takes place. The approved authorization request may be held for an extended length of time before a card is present or not.
Private Key: A cryptographic key known only to the user, employed in public key cryptography in decrypting or signing information.
Private Label Credit Cards: Revolving credit issued under a retailer's or manufacturer's name. Consumers choose how much of the account balance to pay off each month, subject to minimum payments.
Processing Date: The date on which the transaction is processed by the acquiring bank.
Public Key Cryptography: A form of asymmetric encryption where all parties possess a pair of keys, one private and one public, for use in encryption and digital signing of data.
Public Key: A cryptographic key which is used for data encryption and which cannot be used for decryption. Public keys can be freely published.
Purchasing Card: This card allows a company to place orders directly with suppliers and charges them to the card.
QMI - Quick Market Intelligence: QMI is a way for a large business to respond to issues, competitive intelligence, new ideas and other information as a small business would. QMI meets will be scheduled on a regular basis with representatives from around the nation. Cross-functional team members share their insights on the issues being presented which should relate to at least one of the following areas: - Competition- Pricing- Quality Assurance- Customer Satisfaction- Lessons Learned
Quality Mindset: One of the GE values - see Excellence.
Receipt: A hard copy document recording a transaction that took place at the point of sale, with a description that usually includes: date, merchant name/location, primary account number, amount, and reference number.
Receivables Financing: Turns accounts receivables into cash.
Recurring Billing: Transactions for which a cardholder grants permission to the Merchant to periodically charge his account number for recurring goods or services.
Reference Number: Number assigned to each monetary transaction in a descriptive billing system. Each reference number is printed on the monthly statement to aid in retrieval of the document, should it be questioned by the cardholder.
Refund: Create a credit to a cardholder account, usually as a result of a product return or to correct an error.
Regulation E: Electronic Funds Transfers - Establishes the rights, liabilities, and responsibilities of parties in electronic funds transfers and protects consumers when they use such systems.
Regulation Z: Truth in Lending - Prescribes uniform methods for computing the cost of credit, for disclosing credit terms, and for resolving errors on certain types of credit accounts. This federal regulation governs all aspects concerning credit cards. It pertains to the issuer and cardholder, as well as any organization involved in the processing of credit cards.
Request Auth: Submits a transaction for Authorization Only. (See Authorization).
Retail Merchant: A merchant that provides goods and/or services in the retail industry, but is not a mail/phone merchant, a recurring services merchant, or a T&E merchant.
Retrieval Request: An issuer"s request for a transaction receipt, which could include the original, a paper copy or facsimile, or an electronic version thereof.
Return on Equity (ROE): The percentage earned by the business on the money that has been invested in it.
Return on Investment (ROI): Relationship of net income to average investments. This is expressed as the percentage earned on the total money outstanding.
Return on Sales (ROS): Relationship of net income to sales
Reversal: An online financial transaction used to negate or cancel a transaction that has been sent through interchange in error.
Sales Draft: A paper record evidencing the purchase of goods or services by a cardholder.
Sales Finance: Our Sales Finance division provides private label credit card programs for retailers, associations and manufacturers in a wide range of industries. These programs enable GE's credit partners to offer instant credit and extended financing to their consumer customers. Programs include custom card programs, as well as industry-wide programs for smaller independent retailers. We offer credit options such as "No Payment," and "No Interest" promotions up to two years. Applications and transactions are processed electronically via a single terminal solution. Key features include sales funding within two business days, competitive merchant discounts, credit responses within seconds, higher ticket sales and increased repeat business.
Secured Credit Card. A consumer uses savings or cash deposit to guarantee the credit card or loan; the limit of credit is based on the amount of deposit available.
Settlement Bank: A bank, including a correspondent or intermediary bank, that is both located in the country where a member"s settlement currency is the local currency, and authorized to execute settlement of interchange on behalf of the member or the member"s bank.
Settlement: The reporting of settlement amounts owed by one member to another, or to a card issuing concern, as a result of clearing. This is the actual buying and selling of transactions between the merchants, processors, and acquirers; along with the card issuing entities.
SIC Code: Standard Industry Classification Code. A system used to categorize businesses by industry group. This system is being replaced by the NAICS Coding system.
Smart Card: A plastic card containing a computer chip with memory and CPU capabilities. Such a card may be used for identification, to store information or financial amounts, or other forms of data. Also called an integrated circuit card or a chip card.
Smart Chip Card: It"s a card with a microprocessor chip in it. Smart Chip adds security capabilities and enhanced online shopping security.
Speed Teams: These are teams using the Work-Out method to generate solutions to problems. These "Speed" or "Action" teams are so called, because they are able to make decisions and implement solutions within the Work-Out sessions. The groups does not need to refer their decisions to any other person within the organization, they have the decision makers within the Speed team. "Speed" or "Action" means that action is taken immediately. In addition, the topics being worked on usually relate to speeding up processes and procedures i.e., doing them faster/quicker.
SSL: Secure Sockets Layer - an encryption standard devised by Netscape Communications for secure communication over the World Wide Web.
Stakeholder: A stakeholder is any person (or group of people) who is responsible for a particular activity, is likely to be affected by the outcome or any tasks undertaken when a group is working on a topic, or is in a position to prevent a decision from being implemented.
Standard Floor Limit: A floor limit that varies by merchant type. This refers to a dollar limit on transactions above which authorization requests are required.
Statement: A written record prepared by a financial institution, usually once a month, listing all transactions for an account, including deposits, withdrawals, checks, electronic transfers, fees and other charges, and interest credited or earned. The statement is usually mailed to the customer.
Stored-value Card: A stored-value card is a credit-card-sized device, implanted with a computer chip, with stored money value. A reloadable stored-value card can be reused by transferring value to it from an automated teller machine or other device. A disposable card cannot be reloaded.
TCP / IP: Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A standard format for transmitting data from one computer to another. TCP deals with the construction of the data. IP routes the data from one computer to another.
Terminal Id: In the payment card industry, a number provided to a merchant by a credit card processor when that merchant retains the services of that credit card processor to uniquely identify a terminal. Also sometimes called the terminal number. A credit card processor may assign several terminal IDs to a given merchant"s terminals although that merchant has a single merchant ID with that processor.
Third-party Transaction Processor: An entity that validates and authorizes credit card purchases. They may also service the actual accounts on behalf of the issuers, emboss cards, and mail cards to cardholders.
Top Line: Revenues
Transaction Fees and Other Charges. Some issuers charge a fee if you use the card to get a cash advance, make a late payment, or exceed your credit limit. Some charge a monthly fee whether or not you use the card.
Transaction Identifier: A unique 15 character value that VISA assigns to each transaction and returns to the Acquirer in the authorization response. VISA uses this value to maintain an audit trail throughout the life cycle of the transaction and all related transactions, such as reversals, adjustments, confirmations, and chargebacks.
Transaction Processor: An entity that validates and authorizes credit card purchases. They may also service the actual accounts on behalf of the issuers, emboss cards, and mail cards to cardholders.
Transaction Type: A specific type of financial detail transaction activity that can be submitted to the clearing system.
Transaction: (1) any agreement between two or more parties that establishes a legal obligation. (2) the act of carrying out such an obligation. (3) all activities that effect a deposit account that are performed at the request of the account holder. (4) All events that cause some change in the assets, liabilities or net worth of a business. (5) Action between a cardholder and a merchant or a cardholder and a member that results in activity on the cardholder account.
Triple DES (DES3): A data encryption algorithm based on DES in which information is processed through the DES algorithm three times.
Turnover: The measurement of receivables and/or inventory asset cycles in a fiscal year. The term also is used to describe the percent of employees leaving a business component in a given year
Two-cycle Balances. Issuers sometimes use various methods to calculate your balance. This is just another computation method that credit card issuers use to calculate account balance. This balance is calculated by taking the sum of the average daily balances for two billing cycles. The first balance is for the current billing cycle and the second balance is for the previous billing cycle.
UN/SPSC Code: Universal Standard Product and Service Classification Code. A Global commodity standard - 10 digit, hierarchical code used to consistently classify products and services.
Unbundled Fees: Other fees paid by the merchant to the merchant bank or other contracted party for transaction processing.
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC): A set of business-related laws dealing with the sale of goods, their transportation and delivery, financing, storage, payments, and various other commercial transactions. These model laws have been adopted, with minor modifications, by most states to provide some consistency among states" commercial laws. They were drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.
Uniform Commercial Code Article 4A (UCC 4A): Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is a comprehensive body of state law governing commercial transactions. Article 4A covers certain funds transfers, including ACH credit transactions not subject to the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.
Unsecured Credit Card. A credit card based on a consumer"s promise to pay, without savings or cash deposit as a guarantee.
User Authentication: Process of validating that a user is who the user represents himself/herself as.
User Id: The identity of the person authorized to log on to the system.
Validation Code: A unique 4 character value that VISA includes as part of the CPS/ATM program in each authorization response to ensure that key authorization fields are preserved in the clearing or settlement record.
Variable APR. Variable APR (expressed in yearly terms) fluctuates based on an index such as the Prime Rate or LIBOR.
Visa Acquirer: A member that signs a Visa merchant or disburses currency to a Visa cardholder in a cash disbursement, and directly or indirectly enters the resulting transaction receipt into interchange.
Visa Card: A card that bears the Visa symbol, enabling a Visa cardholder to obtain goods, services, or cash from a Visa merchant or an acquirer.
Visa Issuer: A member that issues Visa Cards.
Visa Merchant: A merchant that displays the Visa symbol and accepts all Visa cards.
Visa: Visa International Service Association and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Visanet: The systems and services, including the V.I.P. system and BASE II, through which Visa delivers online financial processing, authorization, clearing, and settlement services to members.
Voice Authorization: An approval response obtained through interactive communication between an issuer and an acquirer, their authorizing processors, or stand-in processing, through telephone, facsimile, or telex communications.
Void Transaction: Delete the transaction information.
Void(ed): Nullifies a transaction that has been recorded for settlement, but not yet settled. This removes the transaction from the batch of transactions to be settled.