Terminology Flashcards
A card, code or other means of access to a consumer’s account, or any combination thereof, that may be used by the consumer to initiate electronic fund transfers. This does not include electronic devices, such as telephones, personal computers or terminals, typically used in such transfers.
Access Device
A card or other means of access to a Consumer Account held by a Depository Financial Institution that is issued by an entity other than the Depository Financial Institution or a party that has contracted directly with the Depository Financial Institution to issue such cards or other means of access and can be used at the point of sale to initiate POS entries.
ACH Card
An electronic funds transfer system governed by the Nacha Operating Rules that provides for the interbank clearing of electronic entries for participating financial institutions.
ACH Network
An entity that acts as a central facility for the clearing, delivery and settlement of entries between or among participating DFIs. It may be a Federal Reserve Bank or an entity that executes an annual agreement with Nacha.
ACH Operator
The rate at which an Originator’s or Third-Party Sender’s debit entries are returned for administrative reasons (Return Reason Codes R02, R03, or R04)
Administrative Return Rate
An Administrative Return Rate of three percent (3%).
Administrative Return Rate Level
An ACH record that contains supplemental data related to an entry. This information may be needed to completely identify an account holder(s) or provide information concerning a payment to the RDFI and the Receiver.
Addenda Record
A contract between entities that defines the operational and legal relationship between the two business entities when transferring funds electronically through the ACH Network.
Agreement
is the coordinating organization for America’s federated national standards system. Membership comes from industry trade associations and the Federal Government.
ANSI
The Accredited Standards Committee group that deals with standards involving dealings between financial institutions.
ASC X9
The Accredited Standards Committee responsible for the development of uniform standards for inter-industry electronic interchange of business transaction data. The data interchange standards consist of transaction set standards, a data dictionary and transmission control standards.
ASC X12
The process of generating a message/data-specific code that can be used to positively identify the sender of the message/data, and to protect the message/data from insertion, modification, deletion or replay. The code is generated using a confidential set of keys and a complex mathematical algorithm (the Data Encryption Standard - DES). The code is appended to the message/data that is to be protected. The message/data is in a readable form.
Authentication
For most consumer debit entries, a written agreement with the originating company that is signed or similarly authenticated by an employee, customer, or member to allow payments processed through the ACH Network to be withdrawn from the Receiver’s account at a financial institution. It can also be a written agreement that defines the terms, conditions, and legal relationship between trading partners.
Authorization
An optional, variable format field of the MICR line of a check. It is positioned to the left of the routing number (or the external processing code, when such a code is present). Data located within this field is bracketed by on-us symbols.
Auxiliary On-Us Field
Funds available for use on the current day.
Available Balances
Funds that are available for use immediately to make payments, to invest, etc.
Available or Collected Funds
Schedule of deposited checks showing when the funds will be available.
Availability Schedule
Number of days required to collect items before the customer has available balances.
Availability
Any day on which a participating depository financial institution is open to the public during any part of the day for carrying on substantially all its banking functions. With reference to an ACH Operator, any day on which the applicable facility of such ACH Operator is being operated.
Banking Day
A group of records or documents considered as a single unit for the purpose of data processing.
Batch
A person designated as the recipient of funds (i.e., a person who has applied for and is entitled to Federal benefits payable by law.)
Beneficiary
The accounting entry that reflects the bank balance. It may or may not reflect funds available for immediate use.
Book or Ledger Balance
The disbursement division for the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
The financial institution or merchant that authorizes the issuance of a card to a consumer (or another organization) and is liable for the use of the card. The issuer retains full authority over the use of the card by the person to whom the card is issued. Any bank or organization that issues, or causes to be issued, bank cards to those who apply for them. Also referred to as the access device issuer.
Card Issuer
The transfer of funds from diverse accounts into a central account to effect more efficient cash management.
Cash Concentration
The transfer of funds from a central account to diverse accounts to effect more efficient cash management.
Cash
Disbursement
Any item that is immediately convertible into cash such as a paper or electronic collection instrument.
Cash Item
A deposit of checks by a financial institution at another financial institution or the Federal Reserve Bank. The checks within this are drawn on various paying banks or may be drawn only on the financial institution receiving it.
Cash Letter
A master file maintained by the ACH Operator to verify the file’s routing numbers and other pertinent information of participating depository financial institutions.
Central Information File (CIF)
A letter, digit or other symbol that is used as part of the organization, control, and/or
representation of data.
Character
The final character of a routing number that may be used to test the validity of a
specific routing number. Some financial institutions also calculate this for
their account numbers.
Check Digit
Process of collecting the paper or electronic items from the drawee banks after being
deposited by a customer.
Clearing
The balance of an account maintained by a financial institution at a Federal Reserve
or correspondent bank.
Clearing Balance
A voluntary association of depository institutions that facilitates the clearing of
checks or electronic items through the direct exchange of funds between members.
Clearing House
A large dollar wire transfer system operated by the Clearing House Interbank
Payments System Company.
Clearing House
Interbank
Payments
Systems (CHIPS)
An individual, sole proprietorship, or corporation engaged in a commercial enterprise.
Company
The record(s) contained within an ACH file that describes the Originator(s) of an ACH
transaction(s).
Company
Batch/Header
Record
The balances a company must maintain at a bank to compensate for credit
accommodations and credit services.
Compensating
Balances
A validation process that is used to ensure that a transmission complies with ASC X12
syntax rules.
Compliance
Checking
Usually refers to an individual engaged in transactions other than commercial.
Consumer
A deposit account held by a financial institution and established by a natural person
primarily for personal, family, or household use and not for commercial purposes.
Consumer
Account
A bank that accepts deposits and performs banking services for other banks. This arrangement exists between local banks and banks located
throughout the world.
Correspondent
Bank
The department within a financial institution that is responsible for establishing credit
policies and procedures.
Credit
Department
An entry to the record of an account to represent the transfer or placement of funds
into the account.
Credit Entry
A maximum amount a customer is allowed to borrow or become obligated to pay
based on the customer’s credit rating, historical or predicted funding requirements,
and the type of obligation.
Credit Limit
Classification of a customer’s ability to repay debts and various obligations.
Credit Rating
The risk that a party to a transaction cannot provide the necessary funds, as
contracted, in order for settlement to take place.
Credit Risk
Occurs when the movement of fraudulent or illegal payment
transactions from one payments channel to another (e.g., check payments to ACH) is
met with inconsistent risk management practices and lack of information sharing
across payment channels about fraud.
Cross-Channel
Risk
The basic units of information in the EDI standards, containing a set of values that
represent a singular fact. They may be single character codes, literal descriptions, or
numeric values.
Data Element
Converting plain text using a key and a transformation technique into scrambled
text, which protects the confidentiality of the information being transferred.
Data Encryption
The electronic exchange of information between two data processing points.
Data Transmission
A card that resembles a credit card in its uses but results in a debit to the
consumer’s transaction account in response to the consumer’s purchases. It may be machine readable, allowing for the activation of an automated teller
machine or other automated payment equipment.
Debit Card
An entry to the record of an account to represent the transfer or removal of funds
from the account.
Debit Entry
A data element separator in an Addenda Record, designated by an asterisk (*).
Delimiter
Regulation E requires a financial institution receiving ACH transactions to make
available a periodic statement with descriptive information included. See Regulation
E for details on the requirements.
Descriptive
Statements
Is a situation in which an Originator or third-party (either a DFI’s Third-
Party Service Provider or an Originator’s Third-Party Sender) transmits ACH files
(transactions) directly to an ACH Operator using a financial institution’s routing and
transit number and settlement account.
Direct Access
Via ACH is the electronic transfer of funds into a customer’s checking
or savings accounts from an employer, another company, or a government agency.
The funds being deposited can represent a variety of products, such as payroll,
interest, pension, dividends, etc.
Direct Deposit
Is the electronic transfer of funds for making payments, whether the
customer sends or receives a payment. With these payments via ACH, customers canpay bills or tuition, donate to a favorite charity, make a purchase, or send money to a friend or family member electronically from a checking or savings account.
Customers can initiate a payment from their bank or credit union’s online bill
payment service, or they can authorize the company or government agency that
they pay to initiate a payment on a recurring or one-time basis.
Direct Payment
A check clearing process in which a bank sends checks directly to the drawee bank or
Federal Reserve Bank. Used to accelerate the collection of checks.
Also refers to the arrangement where financial institutions exchange payment files
with each other that use the Nacha formats (or are covered by the Nacha Operating
Rules) but without using an ACH Operator.
Direct Send
The exchange of data from the computer of the sending party directly to the
computer of the receiving party. A third-party value-added service is not used in a
direct transmission.
Direct
Transmission
The electronic transfer of government benefit funds to individuals using card
technology, ATMs and POS terminals.
Electronic Benefits
Transfer (EBT)
Defines the electronic transmission of routine business documents. Generically, this
term is used to describe the transfer of information.
Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI)
The conversion of application data to and from the X12 standard format, usually to a
readable format.
EDI Translation
Computer software used to perform the conversion of application data to and from
the X12 standard.
EDI Translator
To alter, adapt or refine information, especially to bring about conformity to a
standard or to suit a particular purpose or function. Based on the Nacha Operating
Rules, ACH Operators are responsible for editing all ACH files submitted for
processing. However, the ACH Operator does not make the changes but may reject
the file indicating editing changes are required or may pend the file based on its
agreement.
Edit
Is the banking day specified by the Originator on which it
intends a batch of entries to be settled.
Effective Entry
Date
Is an electronic remittance processing system developed by the U.S. Treasury
for taxpayers to make federal tax deposits and federal tax payments.
Electronic Federal
Tax Payment
System (EFTPS)
A generic term used to describe any ACH, wire or consumer debit card transaction.
Electronic Funds
Transfer (EFT)
A set of message standards approved by the United Nations for international
electronic data interchange. It is a set of international standards for the electronic exchange of business documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, and shipping notices, between different computer systems.
Electronic Data
Interchange for
Administration,
Commerce, and
Transportation
(EDIFACT)