Glossary of Terms A-B C-D E-F I-J L-M N-O P-R S-T U-Z

CheckGateway.com’s Glossary of Financial Terms (L-M)

Use CheckGateway.com as your information resource. Look through our glossary to get the details you need about merchant services, fraud protection and ACH processing.

Level 2 Data

Extra data that may be submitted with the minimum required data for a payment transaction. Examples include shipping and tax information.

Level 3 Data

Broad data that may be submitted with the minimum required data and level 2 data for a payment transaction. Examples include product codes and other merchant-specific order information.

Magnetic Stripe

The black stripe on a credit, debit or stored-value card that stores the cardholder’s account or payment information.

Mail Order/Telephone Order

A business, or merchant, that sells merchandise or services to consumers via mail or telephone initiated orders.

Manual Entry

Submission of payment information for a transaction by manually entering the customer’s payment information into a hardware terminal or virtual terminal. For instance, any transaction that is not submitted by allowing an organization or business to "swipe," or read, payment information from a magnetic stripe on a credit, debit or stored-value card; or transactions that take place by physically keying in payment information using a keypad. Additionally, for Web merchants a manual transaction might be considered any transaction that is not entered at their e-commerce website by a customer.

MasterCard® SecureCode™

A security program created by MasterCard® to provide identity authentication for cardholders and transaction protection for merchants. By registering for MasterCard® SecureCode™, merchants minimize transaction risks while providing additional security for their MasterCard customers.

MasterCard® Site Data Protection Program

A program created by MasterCard® stating its technology and sensitive data security requirements for merchants and merchant service providers. Compliance is required of its member institutions.

Merchant

The person or business entity that sells goods or services to a customer.

Merchant Account

An account established by a merchant to receive payment via credit cards.

Merchant Account Provider

A financial institution that provides a financial account to a merchant for the purpose of collecting proceeds from consumer bank account or credit card payment transactions.

Merchant Identification Number

A unique number assigned by a merchant bank to a merchant in order to identify the merchant in an e-commerce transaction.

Merchant Interface

The platform that allows merchants to access transaction information, management tools and account settings.

Merchant Service Provider (MSP)

The bank or firm that provides processing for credit card transactions. Most MSP's provide merchant accounts.