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Near Field Communications (NFC): A short-range, wireless connectivity technology that allows consumers to perform safe, contactless transactions, access digital content, and connect electronic devices with a single touch. Consumers with NFC-enabled mobile phones may, for example, leave their wallets at home and use their phones to enact contactless financial transactions, or to gain electronic access to public transportation.

Non-repudiation: Process by which a customer cannot deny having paid for an order after it is conducted.

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Online Storefront: A Web site containing e-commerce software, which offers goods and services for sale. An online storefront is the equivalent of a store or place of business that a customer would visit to purchase goods and services.

Open Financial Exchange (OFX): A financial data markup language to facilitate online data exchanges between businesses, consumers and financial institutions. Holds implications for online banking in its support of real-time online transactions on Web sites and in financial software. (See: http://www.ofx.net/ofx.default.asp)

Open Trading Protocol (OTP): Protocol to align various electronic payment mechanisms and render them interoperable. Mainly used for transactions in the financial services sector.

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Point of Sale: In the physical world, this is the point at which a product is paid for and delivered. On the Internet, this is the software that enables the merchant to accept transactions on their online storefronts, and conduct follow-on transactions with their financial institution.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): A set of requirements established by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to protect cardholder data including PINs and Card Verification Code(CVC2) and Card Verification Value (CVV2), the three-digit security codes printed respectively on the back of MasterCard and Visa cards. These requirements apply to all members, merchants, and service providers that store, process, or transmit cardholder data. The founders of the PCI Security Standards Council are American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International.

Payment Card Industry (PCI) certification: Ensures that a cardholder PIN is handled securely regardless of whether it is from POS, ATM or unattended devices. PCI certification covers all aspects of PIN security from PIN encryption during online PIN validation through to making sure the keypad electronics cannot be tampered with. Get more details at Visa's Payment Card Industry (PCI) Web site.

PED: acronym for Personal Identification Number (PIN) entry device used in point-of-sale and ATM transactions.

Prepaid card: Prepaid cards are reloadable cards that are preloaded with an amount paid for in advance. They are intended as a replacement for paper vouchers. Examples of prepaid cards include mobile phone airtime or landline long-distance cards. Prepaid cards issued by banks, retailers or other financial institutions can also be used for purchases in stores.

Public key encryption: An encryption system using two keys, namely a public key for encrypting messages and a private key for decrypting messages, to enable users to verify each other's messages without exchanging secret keys.

Public key infrastructure: (PKI) An interoperable security solution incorporating the use of digital signatures to ensure the integrity of transmitted information. Also supports user authentication and non-repudiation.

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SCSUG (Smart Card Security Users Group): Established by the major card organizations to establish recommendations for chips and operating systems within smart cards. Is defining a protection profile for both credit and debit applications, based on recommendations for chip card security.

Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP):A secure version of HTTP, providing general transaction security services over the Web.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): A public security protocol developed by Netscape, creating a secure link between a Web server and its communicating browser. In an SSL session, all data sent is encrypted. SSL does not authenticate either the sender or the receiver.

SEPA: The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a public policy initiative to create a single integrated payments environment for the Euro zone. Under SEPA, European consumers, companies and other economic players will be able to make and receive payments in Euros (whether cross-border or within national boundaries) under the same terms and conditions, regardless of their location. The fee for SEPA domestic bank transfers, for example, will be the same as cross-border Euro zone transfers. The SEPA program is being led by the European Payments Council, which brings together the European banking community and is supported by the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB).

SEPA Cards Framework: On March 8, 2006, the European Payments Council (EPC) approved the SEPA Cards Framework (SCF), setting out the requirements for schemes and national banking communities to deliver on SEPA for card payments. The current SCF applies to the 12 countries of the Euro Zone, as well as to all Euro payments in the European Union. The SCF applies to "general-purpose" cards - defined as all guaranteed payments (credit, charge and debit card) and cash withdrawals. The primary focus is on debit cards, as most major credit card schemes are largely SEPA-compliant already. National-use only electronic purse and private-label and bank-proprietary cards are outside the scope of the SCF.

Settlement: The step in the clearing process when the acquirer credits the merchant account with the amount of a credit card purchase, and the bankcard association (such as Visa and MasterCard) credits the acquirer and debits the card issuer for the transaction.

Shopping Basket: As you shop online, you add items to your 'virtual' shopping basket. The basket is simply a list of the items you have selected to buy, together with the necessary details (number selected, price of each item etc). You can review what's in your basket at any time as you shop.

Smart card: See chip card.

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Transaction: This is any action between a cardholder and a merchant that results in activity on the account, such as an authorization and settlement. Merchants and financial institutions also conduct follow-on transactions that affect the cardholders' account, such as a capture and credit.

TCPA (Trusted Computing Platform Alliance): Initiative by several PC vendors to collectively establish a security standard for B2B transactions. Participants are to develop hardware and software security specifications for release by the second half of 2000 prior to licensing to the PC industry.

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA): Circuit-switching mobile data network transferring data between a mobile device and a base station.

Transaction Layer Security (TLS): A revision of SSL to offer increased security mechanisms within the protocol.

Two-factor authentication: The use of a hardware device, or additional software, as an extra layer of security on top of the standard password and user name. MasterCard Cardholder Authentication Protocol is an example of a two-factor authentication system.

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UMTS: Stands for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, part of the International Telecommunications Union’s vision of a global family of ’third-generation’ (3G) mobile communications systems. A key role is expected in the future mass market for high-quality wireless multimedia communications that will approach 2 billion users worldwide by the year 2010

UCAF (Universal Card Authentication Field): A 32-character hidden field that is embedded at Web storefronts to collect authentication data generated by issuers and cardholders, and create a unique cardholder authentication for each transaction, which is then forwarded to the issuer, with the authorization request.

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Verified by Visa: An online security tool providing an extra layer of fraud protection for participating merchants and consumers. Using Verified by Visa, consumers register their existing Visa cards and then use their chosen personal identification number (PIN) to confirm their identity when shopping online in the same way that a PIN authenticates cardholder identity at an ATM. See also MasterCard SecureCode.

Virtual Sales Slip: Detailed information on a financial transaction, which is generated by the merchant's online store and downloaded to your digital wallet. Typical items contained in the virtual sales slip are confirmation of your order, shipping details, and total amount of sale.

Visa 3-Domain Secure (3-D Secure): - The 3-D Secure protocol was developed by Visa to improve the security of Internet payments. It is designed to allow authentication of cardholders by their issuers at participating merchants, reducing the likelihood of fraudulent usage of Visa cards and improving overall transaction performance. Visa has licensed the 3-D Secure protocol to other major payment brands and the vendor community.
For more information see Visa 3-Domain Secure.

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WAP (Wireless Application Protocol): A protocol whereby Web-coded information is adapted for use in mobile access devices such as cellphones or pagers.

W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access): A standard facilitating the delivery of high-speed data to compatible mobile phone handsets.

WML (Wireless Markup Language: A markup language providing a 'light' version of a Web site for viewing on handheld devices.

Web Browser: A client program that runs on an end-user's computer, linking it to the World Wide Web.

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For a GSM glossary, try the GSM World site.

epaynews would like to thank MasterCard and Visa for their assistance with this glossary.