Glossary

Payor's financial institution (FI)

The financial institution that holds the account of the payor (person making a payment).

Personal pre-authorized debit (PAD)

A pre-authorized debit drawn on a personal account. Examples include charitable donations, mortgage installments, utility bills, insurance premiums, membership fees, property taxes, credit card billings, etc.

PFMI

Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures – the global risk standards established by the CPSS/CPMI and IOSCO for regulating payment and security clearing and settlement systems.

Position netting

Until the net amount is paid, each party remains legally obligated for the underlying gross amounts.

Postal money order

A payment item issued by and drawn on Canada Post Corporation to order a payment to be made to a payee.

Posting

The process of debiting or crediting an end user’s deposit account and making funds available (with possible restrictions).

PPO

Public Policy Objectives – The public policy objectives for Payments Canada are to promote the efficiency, safety and soundness of its clearing and settlement systems and take into account the interest of users (defined by Department of Finance)

Prominent payment systems

Payment structures for the clearing and settlement of payment obligations where a shock, disruption or failure of the system has the potential to affect, on a national scale, the ability of consumers and businesses to effect payments, thereby reducing confidence in the payments system more generally.

PSD

Payment Systems Directive, issued by the European Commission

Real-time payments (near Real-time)

Real-time refers to the exchange, clearing and settlement processes that take place instantaneously or no longer than one minute. Near-real time is used to describe processes that take place in under three minutes (but longer than one minute).

Regulator

An entity (typically a public or government entity) with authority to define policy and supervise a particular business activity through the making and enforcement of standards and rules.

Remittance

The portion of an invoice or the electronic data submitted to the payor's FI by the payor, along with payment, and which becomes a credit item representing value when exchanged by the payor's financial institution.