Glossary of ISO 8583 Terms

• acquirer: Financial institution (or its agent) which acquires from the card acceptor the data relating to the transaction and initiates that data into an interchange system.
• advice: Message which notifies a party of an action that has been taken, requiring no approval.
• authorization: The approval or guarantee given by the card issuer to the acquirer (and/or card acceptor).
• card acceptor: Party accepting the card and presenting transaction data to an acquirer.
• cardholder: Customer associated with the primary account number requesting the transaction from the card acceptor.
• cardholder account transfer: The movement of funds by a cardholder from one of his accounts to another of his accounts both of which are held by the same financial institution.
• card issuer: Institution (or its agent) which issues the identification card to the cardholder.
• credit transaction: A claim for funds by the cardholder for the credit of his account. At the same time it provides details of funds acknowledged as payable by the acquirer (and/or the card acceptor) to the card issuer.
• debit transaction: An approval by the cardholder of the debit to his account. At the same time it provides a claim of funds made by the acquirer (and/or the card acceptor) against the card issuer.
• interactive message Message to be transmitted and responded to while the transaction is taking place.
• intermediate network facility: Any message processing entity positioned between the acquirer and the issuer.
• message: A set of data elements used to exchange information between institutions (or their agents). No communications (header/trailer, protocol, or character code) or security implications are assumed or identified.
• non-interactive message: Message transmitted after the transaction has taken place and where there is no urgency implied for the response. On-line telecommunication methods may be used for message transmission or off-line message transmission may be used (e.g. magnetic tape).
• point of service(POS): Location where transaction is originated.
• processing fee: A cost associated with the handling and routing of messages not relating to either cardholder service or equipment (e.g. ATM) usage charges.
• request: Message originating an interactive series of messages.
• reversal: A message informing the sender of the original message that the message cannot be processed as instructed, i.e. is undeliverable, unprocessable or cancelled by the receiver.
• reversal credit: A credit arising from the reversal of a previous debit.
• reversal debit: A debit arising from the reversal of a previous credit.
• reversal transfer: A debit and credit arising from the reversal of a previous transfer.
• routing: The directional flow of messages by which the acquirer and card issuer communicate with each other directly or via (an) intermediate network facility(ies) which may act as agant(s) for the original parties involved in the message flow.
• settlement: A transfer of funds to complete one or more prior transactions made, subject to final accounting.
• settlement institution: Financial institution (or its agent) accepting responsibility for reimbursing the acquirer, card issuer or intermediate network facility for an approved financial transaction.
• transaction: A collection of related messages designed to complete (insofar as this is possible) the intention of the initiator of the original message, and normally concluded by a debit or credit transaction. Amendments or reversals carried out subsequently are to be considered as a seperate transaction set.
• transaction fee: A fee charged (for example by the acquirer) for a transaction activity.