PDF File (Portable Document Format): A method for distributing formatted documents over the Internet. You need a special reader program called Acrobat, and you can get it at www.adobe.com.

PIN: Personal Identification Number. The confidential individual number or code used by a cardholder to authenticate card ownership for ATM or POS terminal transactions.

PIN Authorization Request: A procedure enabling the issuer to validate cardholder identity by comparing the PIN to the account numbers.

POS Terminal: A device placed in a merchant location that is connected to the bank's system or authorization service provider via telephone lines and is designed to authorize, record, and forward data by electronic means for each sale.

Packet: A chunk of information sent over a network. Each packet contains the address that it's going to and the address from which it came.

Paper: Sales slips, credit slips, cash disbursement slips, and other obligations indicating use of a card or a card account. Also referred to as 'media.'

Paper / Voice: The oldest, yet most familiar bankcard process mode whereby a merchant must call the authorization center for approval of a credit card transaction and then submit their sales slips to payment processor for processing.

Pass Through: Transactions that are processed by payment processor for statement purposes, but are not funded by payment processor (i.e., American Express, Discover).

Payment Gateway: A provider of software and hardware systems that connect merchants and credit-card authorization networks together in order to complete real-time authorizations, automated batch submission, reporting, and a online commerce functions.

Payment System: A set of instructions and procedures used for the transfer of ownership and settlement of obligations arising from the exchange of goods and services.

Pick-Up Card: An issuer's response to an authorization request stipulating that the card be confiscated by the merchant and returned to the issuer.

Point of Sale (POS): The location of a merchant where the customer makes a purchase.

Point-of-Sale System: An electronic system that accepts financial data at or near a retail selling location and transmits that data to a computer or authorization network for reporting activity, authorization and transaction logging.

Port: Generally, port refers to the hardware through which computer data is transmitted; the plugs on the back of computers are ports. On the Internet, port often refers to a particular application. For instance, one might telnet to a particular port on a particular host. The port is actually an application.

Positive File: A file listing the current balance and available credit for each active cardholder account. PIN and other cardholder information may also be included.

Posting: The process of recording debits and credits to the cardholder's credit or deposit account.

Presentment: The process by which the acquirer sends the transaction to the issuer for reimbursement.

Principal Member: A financial institution that directly participates as an issuing and/or acquiring member of MasterCard International.

Private Label: A retailer's proprietary card. Accepted only at that merchant's retail establishments.

Processing Date: The earliest date stamped on the transmittal summary and draft by the member or its processor. The date on the 603 transmission header record for electronic transactions.

Processor (Payment Processor): An organization that is connected to VISANet and or Banknet and provides authorization and/or clearing and settlement services on behalf of a member.

Proprietary Card: A card issued by a financial institution to its customers for access to their credit or deposit accounts.

Protocol: The agreed-on rules that computers rely on to talk among themselves. A set of signals that mean 'go ahead,' 'got it,' 'didn't get it, please resend,' 'all done,' and so on.

Purchasing Card: Designed to help companies maintain control of small purchases while reducing the administrative cost associated with authorizing, tracking, paying and reconciling those purchases.