MCC: See Merchant Category Code.

MICR Number Method: A check authorization procedure that uses the bank routing/transit numbers, checking account numbers and check number encoded along the bottom of the check.

Magnetic Information Character Recognition (MICR): Imprinted banking numbers (routing/transit number, checking account number, check number) at the bottom of the check.

Magnetic Stripe: A stripe (on the bankcard) of magnetically encoded cardholder account information affixed to a plastic card.

Mail Order / Telephone Order (MO/TO): The direct marketing catalog industry.

Media: The documentation of monetary transactions (i.e. sales drafts, credit slips, computer printouts, etc.)

Member: A financial institution which is a member of VISA USA and/or MasterCard International. A member is licensed to issue cards to cardholders and/or accept merchant drafts.

Merchant: A retailer, or any other person, firm, or corporation that, according to a Merchant Agreement, agrees to accept credit cards, debit cards, or both, when properly presented.

Merchant Account Initiation (MAI): A full-cycle credit management system that statistically credit scores and rates new merchant applications, tracks accounts from contract signing to achievement including an on-going profitability analysis, and retains a paperless credit file online.

Merchant Acquirer: A member that has entered into an agreement with a merchant to accept deposits generated by bankcard transactions; also called the acquirer or acquiring bank.

Merchant Agreement: The written contract between merchant and acquirer who detail their respective rights, responsibilities, and warranties.

Merchant Category Code (MCC): Merchant classification code which identifies the merchant by type of processing, authorization and settlement.

Merchant Fraud: The act of submitting sales drafts which are not the result of legitimate sales for the purpose of defrauding the services, the client bank, or individual cardholders. Fraud includes knowingly accepting lost, stolen, or counterfeit credit cards.

Merchant Number: A number that numerically identifies each merchant to the merchant processor for accounting and billing purposes.

Merchant Outlet: The physical premises of the merchant at which a transaction is consummated.

Merchant Service Charge: The discount rate or other fees assessed by the acquirer.

Merchant Settlement Amount: The net dollar amount for each business day of card transactions processed, less chargebacks debited to the merchants and other debits or credits to the merchants.

Merchant Station Plate: A metal embossed plate to be attached to the imprinter machine and used for imprinting sales slips and batch headers/summaries. Embossed data includes merchant name, account number, city, state, and may include service entitlement numbers or checking account number. Also known as a 'slug.'

Modem: A device that converts serial digital data from a computer to a signal suitable for transmission over a telephone line and then reconverts the signal to serial digital data for the receiving PC.