Glossary_

The vocabulary of cross-border commerce.

The terms that come up when you localize a checkout or score a transaction — defined plainly.

Why these terms

The words behind the fields.

Each entry here sits behind something the API returns — minor units and the cifrão behind the formatting engine, BINs and ASNs behind the risk signals, FATF and OFAC behind the compliance flags. Read the definition, then find the field in the docs.

See the response shape

BIN / IIN: The Bank Identification Number — the first 6–8 digits of a card number, also called the Issuer Identification Number. It identifies the issuing bank and country.
Minor units: The number of decimal places a currency uses. JPY has 0, USD has 2, KWD has 3.
SCA: Strong Customer Authentication — a regulatory requirement (notably PSD2 in the EEA) to verify a payer with two independent factors.
3-D Secure: A protocol that adds an authentication step during an online card payment, shifting some liability to the issuer.
ASN: Autonomous System Number — an identifier for a network under one administrative domain, such as an ISP or a cloud provider.
Tor exit node: The final relay in the Tor network, whose IP is what a destination server sees instead of the real user.
Cifrão: The currency notation, used for the Cape Verdean escudo, where the "$" sits in the decimal position: 1 234$56.
Lakh / crore grouping: The South Asian digit-grouping system where, after the first three digits, groups are of two: 1,23,456.78.
FATF grey list: Jurisdictions the Financial Action Task Force has placed under increased monitoring for anti-money-laundering deficiencies.
OFAC SDN list: The US Treasury’s list of Specially Designated Nationals — individuals and entities that US persons are broadly prohibited from dealing with.