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"merchants"

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Merchant choosing between a bank POS and a virtual POS service

Merchant & POS

Is it mandatory to work with a bank to get a POS terminal?

The answer depends on the type of POS terminal. A physical POS (GPRS, Dial-Up, IP, or cash-register POS) requires working with a bank. A virtual POS can also be obtained from a payment institution without a separate bank agreement.

Dictionary and glossary book representing payment systems terminology

Merchant & POS

Terms that should be in your payment systems glossary

Below are the definitions of the cornerstone terms of payment systems, as established by the Banks Association of Turkey (TBB): debit card, credit card, merchant, cardholder, and more.

Illustration of a closed-loop payment ecosystem growing through loyalty, data, and new services

Closed-Loop Payments

Why Do Closed-Loop Payment Systems Want to Grow? | Series #6

Why does a coffee chain build its own loyalty program, and why does a payment app keep adding services? This post looks at how loyalty, data, and new services drive the growth of closed-loop payment systems, and at the financial layers behind that growth.

Illustration of the Alipay super app connecting payments, merchants and financial services

Closed-Loop Payments

Alipay: Payment System or Digital Economy? | Closed-Loop Payments #5

Is Alipay a payment system, or a digital economy? In the previous post we discussed how Starbucks shows that payment systems can evolve into a different structure. At first the goal was to make payment easier for the customer. As the system grew, loyalty programs...

Diagram illustrating account-to-account (A2A) payment flow between banks

Online & Authorization

What are A2A (Account-to-Account) Payments?

Account-to-account (A2A) payments can be described as making a payment by transferring money from one bank account to another. Though similar to wire transfer/EFT, combining the transfer with the payment creates a seamless experience.

Illustration of ISO 18245 merchant category codes (MCC)

Payment Systems

What Is ISO 18245?

ISO 18245 is an ISO standard on the management of Merchant Category Codes (MCC) in retail financial services. ISO 18245: 2003 defines the code values used to classify merchants by the type of business, trade or service they provide.

Diagram illustrating the retrieval request process in card transactions

Chargeback

What is a Retrieval Request?

A chargeback is when cardholders dispute a transaction made without their knowledge through their card-issuing bank. So what does a Retrieval Request mean? It is essentially a document request related to transactions a cardholder does not recognize on their statement.

Chart of the effects of credit card usage on inflation

Credit Card

Does Credit Card Usage Increase Inflation?

The effect of credit cards on inflation has been debated for years. Because I am asked about it so often, I ran a poll on arifunal.com to gather readers' views. This post weighs the positive and negative effects and compares the poll with the research findings.

Old mechanical credit card imprinter machine used to transfer embossed card details onto a sales slip

Merchant & POS

What Is an Imprinter?

An imprinter is the name given to devices that transfer all the information embossed on a credit card onto a paper sales receipt. Before POS terminals, it was commonly used by merchants for authorization transactions.

Diagram illustrating the tokenization and detokenization process for card payments

HCE

What Are Tokenization and Detokenization?

Tokenization generates secure data from a credit card number, using specific algorithms, for use during authorization. In CNP transactions, it removes the risk of storing or compromising the original card number.

Diagram explaining the MCC merchant category code field in ISO 8583 messages

ISO 8583

ISO 8583 Field Descriptions (F18)

F18-MERCHANT TYPE: This is the merchant's category code (MCC) information. It must contain values from the Mastercard or Visa MCC Code list. It is a 4-digit numeric value. For ATM transactions, MCC code 6011 should be sent. The role of MCC in authorization...