C-commerce
Collaborative commerce.

CAB
Abbreviation for Citizens Advice Bureau.

Cable Modem
A modem that plugs into a cable network to provide Internet access for homes or small businesses.

CAD
The Card Accepting Device communicates with smart cards during a transaction.

CAGR
Acronym for Compound Annual Growth Rate. The year-over-year growth rate applied to an investment or other part of a company`s activities over a multiple-year period.

CAIS
A UK proprietary loan payment history system.

Calibration
The method for ensuring that all scorecards being used work on the same scale, even if the set of circumstances change.

Call Abandonment
This refers to people, who when placed on hold at an incoming call centre, elect to hang up (‘abandon’) the call. Call centres monitor the ‘abandonment rate’ very closely, as it is a predictive measure of their efficiency. See Abandoned Call or Abandon Rate.

Call Blending
Combining traditionally separate inbound and outbound agent groups into one group of agents responsible for handling both inbound and outbound mode and outbound contacts. A system that is capable of call blending automatically puts agents who are making outbound calls into the inbound mode and vice versa, as necessitated by the incoming call load.

Call by Call Routing
The process of routing each call to the optimum destination according to real-time conditions. See Percent Allocation.

Call Centre
An umbrella term that generally refers to reservations centres, help desks, information lines or customer service centres, regardless of how they are organised or what types of transactions they handle. Many are challenging the term, because calls are just one type of transaction and the word centre doesn’t accurately depict the many multi-site environments.

Call Control Variables
The set of criteria the ACD uses to process calls. Examples including routing criteria overflow parameters, recorded announcements and timing thresholds. See ACD.

Call Detail Recording
Data on each call, captured by the ACD. This can include the trunk used, time in queue, call duration, agent who handled the call, number dialled (for outgoing) and other information. See Historical Reports.

Call Tracking
Keeping track of what happened to customer calls.

Caller Entered Digits (CED)
Digits which callers enter using their telephone.

Caller Line Identification
The ability at network level to identify the source of a call before deciding whether to accept it. The call recipient must be based in a digital exchange, but not all network operators provide this facility at present. Also known as CLI.

Can’t Pays
Debtors who have defaulted on payments due to their financial inability rather than any intent not to pay.

Cancellation Number
A number provided by a hotel/motel to verify a cardholder's notification to cancel a guaranteed reservation or advance resort deposit.

Cancellation of Debt
Release of a debt without consideration by a creditor.

Cap
A limit placed on adjustments in adjustable rate mortgages to protect the borrower from large increases in the interest rate or payment level.

Capacity
One of the Three C’s of Credit: Character, Capacity and Collateral. The capacity of the applicant to financially service the debt generated by the additional credit applied for.

Capital
(1) Money used to create income, either as an investment in a business or an income property.
(2) The money or property comprising the wealth owned or used by a person or business enterprise.
(3) The accumulated wealth of a person or business.
(4) The net worth of a business represented by the amount by which its assets exceed liabilities.

Capital Adequacy Ratio
The ratio of the total capital divided by risk-weighted assets and risk-weighted off-balance sheet items. Banks are expected to meet a minimum capital ratio requirement predetermined by the relevant banking authority.

Capital Commitment
A decision made by a company to invest a certain amount in long-term assets over a specific period of time.

Capital Consumption Allowance
The percentage of the GDP which is due to depreciation. GDP minus capital consumption allowance equals net national product.

Capital Gain/Loss
A capital gain is the profit made when a capital asset is sold for more than the original cost. A capital loss arises when the asset is sold for less than the original cost.

Capital Gains Distribution
A payment to investment company shareholders of profits realised on the sale of its securities.

Capital Gains Tax
A tax due on profits realised from buying security or stock at one price and selling it at another.

Capital Market
Market for loanable funds that covers medium and long term finance.

Capital Stock
All shares representing ownership of a business, including preferred and common.

Capital Sum
The initial sum of money invested or deposited, before interest earned.

Capitalisation
Also known as Market Capitalisation. This is the total value of a company, as defined by stock market value. The value is arrived at by multiplying the company share price by the number of shares in issue.

Capture
Converting the authorisation amount into a billable transaction record within a batch. Transactions cannot be captured unless previously authorised and the goods or services have been shipped or transmitted to the consumer.

Capture Date
The date on which a transaction is processed by an acquirer.

Card Accepting Device
The Card Accepting Device communicates with smart cards during a transaction. Also known as CAD.

Card Balance Protection (CBP)
This is a form of life assurance, whereby the credit grantor or an associated company insures the customer for the payment of their outstanding debt, in the event that the customer dies.

Card Base
A population of cardholders, especially in the context of a single-card family.

Card Holder Agreement
A written statement giving the terms and conditions of a credit card account.

Card Issuer
1) The financial institution or retailer that authorises the issuance of a card to a consumer or another organisation, and is liable for the use of the card. The issuer retains full authority over the use of the card by the person to whom the card is issued. 2) Any bank or organisation that issues, or causes to be issued, bankcards to those who apply for them. 3) Any organisation that uses or issues a personal identification number (PIN).

Card Not Present Transaction
A transaction where the customer is not present to sign for the purchase e.g. Internet, telephone and mail order.

Card Reader
A mechanical device designed to electrically contact smart cards enabling it to read/write data.

Card Recovery Bulletin
A directory of blocked account numbers intended for distribution to merchants.

Card Verification Code (CVC)
A unique value calculated from the data encoded on the magnetic stripe of a MasterCard card, validating card information during the authorisation process.

Card Verification Value (CVV)
A unique check value encoded on the magnetic stripe of a credit card to validate card information during the authorisation process. The card verification value is calculated from the data encoded on the magnetic stripe using a secure cryptographic process.

Cardholder
An individual to whom a card is issued, or who is authorised to use that card.

Cardholder Bank
The bank that has issued a bankcard to an individual. The term is frequently used in conjunction with interchange arrangement to identify the card-issuing bank.

Cardinality
The number of data occurrences permitted on either side of a data reduction. In the common data architecture, cardinality is documented with data integrity, not with the data structure.

Carrier
A company that provides telecommunications circuits. Carriers include both local telephone companies and long distance providers.

CART
Acronym for Classification and Regression Trees. A decision tree technique that can be used for predictive classification of a data set, or prediction of a continuous value. It provides a set of rules that can be applied to a new (unclassified) data set to predict which records will have a given outcome. It segments a data set by creating two branch splits only.

Carte Blanche
A Travel & Entertainment card issuer.

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
A set of specifications that control how HTML elements are displayed in a Web browser. CSS can be used to to specify fonts, sizes, and colours of the text in HTML documents. Cascading style sheets make it easier for authors of HTML documents to maintain a consistent style on multiple pages.

Case
Refers to the information contained in the database that comprises an entry for each field in the database. For example, an employee database contains a record for each employee. Also known as Observation, Record, and Row.

Cash Advance Fee
A charge by the bank for using credit cards to obtain cash.

Cash Advances
The use a card to obtain cash is achieved either by way of an ATM withdrawal or over the counter in a bank. There is usually a charge levied based on a percentage of the cash amount withdrawn.

Cash Bank
A purchase for more than the amount of goods or services with the cardholder receiving the difference in cash.

Cash Cards
Cash cards are similar to pre-paid phone cards and contain a set amount of value, which can be read by a special cash card reader.

Cash Collateral
Cash or cash equivalents held by the debtor subject to liens of other parties.

Cash Flow
A measure of a company`s financial health. Equals cash receipts minus cash payments over a given period of time; or equivalently, net profit plus amounts charged off for depreciation and amortisation.

Cash Flow
Cash generated or used during the operations of an organisation.

Cash-out Refinancing Loan
A loan that refinances a prior mortgage and that provides additional cash to the borrower.

Cashback
A term primarily applied in the UK market. Cashback transactions are usually facilitated by supermarkets. The checkout assistant adds the cash you have asked for (up to a maximum of £50) to the shopping bill and disburses the cash out of the till.

Cashless Payment
Payment using any medium other than cash, including cards, cheques, credit and debit transfers.

Categorical
Occurs when the values of a variable are categories that are not necessarily ordered. For example, occupation is a categorical variable. Also known as Discrete, Classification, or Nominal variables.

Categorical Fields
Fields that contain different categories of field values. Also known as Discrete Fields.

Categorical Levels of Data Classification
Abstract levels of data classification above the working level that provides a broader perspective of data. There are several types of categorical levels, including Data Classification Schemes, Data Themes, Data Segments and Data Clusters.

Causal Networks
A system that represents cause and effect relationships among variables, along with probabilities that each cause variable will influence each effect variable. It is an alternative to fuzzy expert systems for combining expert knowledge with inferences derived from historical data. Also known as Bayesian Networks and Bayesian Belief Networks.

Caveat
Latin for ‘beware’. Usually it is in the form of a contract clause that stipulates a particular requirement.

Caveat Emptor
Latin for "let the buyer beware" which means that the buyer of a property or item buys it at his risk.

CBP
Acronym for Card Balance Protection. This is a form of life assurance, whereby the credit grantor or an associated company insures the customer for the payment of their outstanding debt, in the event that the customer dies.

CD
1) A banking term for certificate of deposit, 2) A compact disk, a form of digitised data storage. (CD-ROM)

CED
Acronym for Caller Entered Digits. The digits callers enter when using their telephone.

Ceiling
The highest price, interest rate, or other numerical factor allowable in a financial transaction.

Ceiling
The maximum allowable interest rate of a variable rate mortgage.

Cell Code
After completing RFM analysis, every customer is assigned a Cell Code, which includes the recency, frequency and monetary level of purchases. The cell code is often used in mailing campaigns. See RFM value.

CEMEA
Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Central Bank
The major regulatory bank for national monetary systems. Central banks are normally government controlled. Central banking roles may include the control of credit, supervision of commercial banks, management of exchange reserves and manipulation of the value of the national currency.

Central Office (CO)
This can refer to either a telephone company switching centre or the type of telephone company switching centre. The local central office receives calls from within the local area and either routes them locally or passes them to an inter-exchange carrier (IXC). On the receiving end, the local central office receives calls that originated in other areas, from the IXC.

Central Processing Unit
This is the heart of a mainframe or PC. See CPU.

Centralised Data Warehouse
A data warehouse implementation in which a single warehouse serves the needs of multiple business units simultaneously with a single data model, which spans the requirements of the multiple business divisions.

Certificate
Financial term; this is a document otherwise referred to as a physical scrip. It confirms the holder’s ownership of a debt obligation. The certificate is required in the event of settlement and when collecting income accrued.

Certification Authority
A secure third party organisation that issues digital certificates used to create digital signatures and public key pairs. Certificate authorities guarantee that the two parties exchanging information are really who they claim to be.

Certified Cheque
A cheque guaranteed for payment by the issuing bank.

Certified Manufacturer
A card manufacturer certified by Visa/MasterCard to produce one or more card products on behalf of an issuer.

Certified Scrip
The marking of a transfer deed by the transfer secretary of a company showing that the relevant original certificate is in their possession.

Cession
A means of transferring a right to claim, so that a new creditor is substituted for the original creditor, while the debtor remains the same. In general, the debtor need not consent to the right.

Ceteris Paribus
All other things being equal.

CFA
Abbreviation for Chartered Financial Analyst. An experienced financial analyst who has passed examinations in economics, financial accounting, portfolio management, security analysis, and standards of conduct given by the institute of Chartered Financial Analysts.

CFO
Chief Financial Officer. This position has ultimate control of a company’s budgets.

CGI
Common Gateway Interface is a programming interface that enables a Web server to communicate with an external program and to pass the results back to a user. See Interface.

CHAID
Acronym for Chi Square Automatic Interaction Detection. A decision tree technique used for predictive classification of a data set, or prediction of a continuous value. It provides a set of rules that you can apply to a new (unclassified) data set to predict which records will have a given outcome. It segments a data set by using chi square tests to create multi-branch splits. See Classification and Regression Trees.

Chain
A series of merchant locations which are managed/owned by the same entity.

Challenger Strategy
A proposed strategy as an alternative to the existing ‘Champion’ strategy.

Champion Strategy
The existing strategy in use by the credit grantor.

Champion-Challenger Test
The process of testing the Challenger strategy against the incumbent Champion strategy, using statistically valid testing and control groups of accounts. See Adaptive Control System.

Change Data Capture
The process of capturing changes made to a production data source. This is typically performed by reading the source log. It consolidates units of work, ensures that data is synchronised with the original source and reduces data volume in a data warehousing environment.

Channel
A medium for the transmission of information, or an input-output device as part of a mainframe computer.

Chaos Theory
The mathematical science that studies sensitive dependence on initial conditions in dynamical systems.

Chapter 11
The chapter in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that contains the provisions for court-supervised reorganisation of debtor companies. See Bankruptcy and Acts of Insolvency.

Character
One of the Three C’s of Credit: Character, Capacity and Collateral. This refers to the ‘character’ of the credit applicant.

Character Loan
A loan based on the reputation or personal credit history of a borrower, rather than collateral.

Characteristic
A question asked on an application or an item of information on a credit report. For example, Age, Occupation, Marital Status. For behaviour scoring models, the characteristics are generated from payment and purchase information, such as Delinquency Level, Utilisation, and Months Since Last Active.

Characteristic Analysis
A comparison of the statistical distribution of counts or percentages of the attributes of characteristics in the current applicant population with those in the sample that was used to develop the original system.

Characteristic Analysis Report
This report compares each characteristic and the percentages of current applicants that fall into the various attributes with the percentages that fell into these same attributes when the scoring system was developed.

Characteristic Score Shift
A characteristic shift is when accounts shift out of the one attribute into another attribute.

Characteristic Strength
A measure of a scorecard characteristic’s ability to discriminate between two outcomes, usually good and bad. This is the maximum contribution that the characteristic can make to the scorecard.

Charge Card
A type of payment card, where the amount due must be paid in full by the cardholder on receipt of the statement.

Charge Per Transaction
A fee charged on any authorised transaction to cover costs usually associated with delivery of the authorisation.

Charge-off
A lender’s declaration of a balance as uncollectable bad debt and/or the process of writing off uncollected loans from account receivable books.

Charge-out System
System that measures the economic capital consumed by incremental credit exposures arising from new transactions, and allocates a proportional charge to risk takers such as traders.

Chargeback
The reversal of a credit card transaction, whereby the issuer returns the transaction to the acquirer.

Chargeback Image Processing System (CIPS).
A stand-alone system developed to handle chargeback processing. Also called the Wang.

Chargeback Period
The number of calendar days (counted from the transaction processing date) during which the issuer has the right to charge the transaction back to the acquirer. The number of days varies according to the type of transaction from 45 to 180 days.

Chargeback Reason Code
A numerical code which identifies the specific reasons for the chargeback. VISA and MasterCard each have their own chargeback codes.

Chargeback Reference Number
A 10-digit number assigned to every chargeback, unique (in a 12-month period) for each individual chargeback. The first four digits of the chargeback reference number are the issuer's identification (BIN/ICA) number.

Charges/Bank Charges
Banks typically charge customers a fee for services rendered. Examples of charges include fees for payments made via cheque, debit orders or cash handling fees.

Chartered Financial Analyst
An experienced financial analyst who has passed examinations in economics, financial accounting, portfolio management, security analysis, and standards of conduct given by the institute of Chartered Financial Analysts. See CFA.

Chat Room
A Web site for live, online conversation in which any number of computer users can type messages to each other and communicate IRT.

Check and List Payment
A paper-based processing method in which the biller is sent a single cheque representing multiple payments accompanied by a list of payments that it represents.

Cheque
A written order for payment of a certain amount of money.

Cheque Account
The account used to write cheques or use a debit card against. Also known in the UK and other countries as a Current Account.

Cheque By Phone
A system that allows consumers to provide their cheque account information to a merchant over the phone and a duplicate cheque (paper draft or electronic cheque) is created for payment.

Cheque Card
A bankcard that enables the user to purchase goods and services and obtain cash disbursements against his or her asset account.

Cheque Guarantee
A service provided by a third party vendor who guarantees a customer's payment by cheque for a specified amount. Stipulations require that the merchant follow correct authorisation procedures.

Cheque Truncation
Arrangements in which original paper cheques are removed from the collection or return process before reaching either paying or depositary financial institutions.

Cheque Verification
A service provided in which a merchant accesses a national negative file database through their terminal/register to verify or authorise the person has no outstanding bad cheque complaints at any of the member merchants. This is not a guarantee of payment to the merchant.

Cherry Picking
The practice of manually identifying and selecting the lowest risk applicants or accounts.

Cheshire Label
This is the most common type of computer label, used in mailing. This plain paper label requires a Cheshire Machine to affix it to mailing materials.

Chi Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID)
A decision tree technique used for predictive classification of a data set, or prediction of a continuous value. It provides a set of rules that you can apply to a new (unclassified) data set to predict which records will have a given outcome. It segments a data set by using chi square tests to create multi-branch splits. It has no good facility for dealing with missing or anomalous data. See Classification and Regression Trees.

Chi Square Test of Independence
A test measuring the statistical association between two categorical variables.

Chief Financial Officer.
Also known as a CFO. This position has ultimate control of a company’s budgets.

Child Node
Used in a decision tree. This is a node that is subordinate to a parent node. This is not the same as an outcome node. See Node and Parent Node.

Chip Card
An integrated circuit card with hard-wired logic capability that provides data security e.g. pay telephone cards.

Chip cards
Chip cards, also called Smart Cards, are plastic cards which operate with a microchip rather than a magnetic stripe and contain client related information.

Chips
Also known as Microchips. These are the ‘brains’ powering computer systems with chip processing speeds varying according to age and make. Modern chips are about the size of a human fingernail and hold millions of circuits shrunk to a microscopic level with photographic methods.

Chronological Data Layer Aggregation
The aggregation of data layers chronologically, in order to provide a history of changes.

Churn
The propensity for, and the rate at which, account holders leave one organisation to take up a better offer with a competitor. See Attrition Rate.

Churning
The practice of customers switching to another supplier based on special discount offers. This term is particularly used in the cellular telephone or credit card industries.

CHV
Card Holder Value (PIN).

CIF
Acronym for Customer Information File, which is a consolidation of many different accounts held by a household or individual and it is often used for marketing purposes, by banks and other financial institutions.

CIFAS
CIFAS is the UK`s Fraud Prevention Service. CIFAS is a not for profit membership association solely dedicated to the prevention of financial crime. CIFAS provides a range of fraud prevention services to its Members, including a fraud avoidance system used by the majority of the UK`s financial services companies. CIFAS also represents its Members to government, the media and the business community, and provides best practice guidance, training and networking opportunities for its Members.

CIPS
Abbreviation for Chargeback Image Processing System. A stand-alone system developed to handle chargeback processing. Also called the Wang.

Cirrus
Cirrus is a network of cash machines which are part of the MasterCard system. If you have a card with the Cirrus sign on it you can take out cash from ATMs around the world which display both the Cirrus and MasterCard signs.

Citizens Advice Bureau
Abbreviated as CAB.

Civil Action
A legal proceeding in the civil courts, in which one party sues for or claims something. For example, money owed from another.

Claim
A demand that someone owes you money or property.

Claimant
The party instigating a court action, which is usually the lender or creditor.

Classification
Where a data set is divided into mutually exclusive groups via a categorical variable, a classification technique attempts to predict which records will fall within each group. For example, a typical classification problem is to divide a database of companies into groups with respect to a creditworthiness variable with “Good” and “Bad” variables. The creditworthiness variable is defined with respect to the future behaviour of the company after the classification is made. See Clustering and Categorical.

Classification And Regression Trees (CART)
A decision tree technique that can be used for predictive classification of a data set, or prediction of a continuous value. It provides a set of rules that can be applied to a new (unclassified) data set to predict which records will have a given outcome. It segments a data set by creating two branch splits only. It is better at dealing with missing or anomalous data than CHAID.

Classification Tree
A graphical representation of the relationships between a dependent variable and a set of independent variables. Typically, the dependent variable is positioned at the top or left of the tree (root node), while independent variables (nodes) and their relationships are shown as branches in the tree. This is also called a Decision Tree.

Classing
The practice of grouping the attributes used in the Initial Enumeration, to reduce the total number of attributes and to ensure that the sample count in each one is statistically significant.

Cleaning Names
A process whereby names and addresses on a customer or prospect list are corrected (addresses standardised, postal codes corrected, spelling and punctuation corrected, duplicates consolidated, etc.)

Clearing Account
An account at the clearing bank that will receive a member's credit or debit for net settlement.

Clearing Bank
A bank designated by the member to receive the member's daily net settlement advisement. The clearing bank will also conduct funds transfer activities with the net settlement bank as well as maintain the member's clearing account. This bank may be the member itself.

Clearing House
Also known as a clearing corporation. This is an organisation guaranteeing the performance of both parties to a specific financial contract, as well as maintaining the records of both parties to the transaction. In return the house collects a margin on the deal.

Clearing System
The system that collects, processes and transmits the information allowing a transaction to be settled.

CLI
Acronym for Call Line Identification, which is the ability at network level to identify the source of a call before deciding whether to accept it. The call recipient must be based in a digital exchange, but not all network operators provide this facility at present.

Click
This is the sound your mouse makes when you press down its button, a click is also the action of pressing and releasing the mouse button, usually to select or activate something.

Click Rate
The click rate is the percentage of advertisement views that result in a clickthrough. Click rates for high-repeat, branding banners vary from 0.15 to 1% but diminish with repeated exposure. Compelling content can increase this up to 5%.

ClickStream
A record of a user’s path whilst navigating through a Web site. This information can help an organisation understand how visitors are using their site and which pages are getting the most use.

Clickthrough
The result of a visitor clicking on an advertisement/message linked to another Web site.

Client Reference Number
An eight-digit number supplied by the establishment for Electronic Draft Capture, Electronic Cash Register.

Client/Server Architecture
A network of computers that share capabilities and devices.

Clip
A media file in a presentation or Web page e.g. part of a movie or song.

Clip Art
Generic graphics available on the Internet that can be "clipped out" and used for illustrations.

Clipboard
The storage location where copied data elements are saved.

Closed
An account that is no longer open or available for business transactions.

Closed System
A kind of payment card system in which one organisation both issues cards and acquires merchants. American Express, Diners Club, and Discover are examples of closed systems.

Closed-account Fee
A fee charged for closing an account.

Closed-end Credit
Generally, any loan or credit sale agreement in which the amounts advanced, plus any finance charges, is expected to be repaid in full over a definite time. Most real estate and automobile loans are closed- end agreements.

Closed-loop Decision Support System
Closed-loop systems interpret query results and automatically execute transactions such as changing product prices or shifting product inventory. A closed-loop decision support systems should allow the analyst to create transactions while interactively viewing query results.

Cluster Models
Cluster models resulting from cluster analysis have traditionally been used quite extensively in marketing applications to help characterise groups of similar consumers. The ability to better understand these groups can lead to more effective messaging, targeting, and new product development efforts.

Clustering
The process of dividing a data set into mutually exclusive groups such that the members of each group are as close as possible to one another, and different groups are as far as possible from one another, where distance is measured with respect to all available variables. Clustering is an unsupervised version of Classification. Also see Area Sampling.

CO
Abbreviation for Central Office.This can refer to either a telephone company switching centre or the type of telephone company switching centre.

Co-branded Card
An alliance between a card issuer and a large non-deposit taking corporation which offers discounts/rewards to cardholders for using the card which bears the corporation's name.

Co-branding
Promotional campaigns that take advantage of the name recognition of the companies involved.

Co-maker
A second person that enters into a loan agreement, guaranteeing to make the payments if the borrower defaults. (People who have not established credit or people with poor credit ratings may need co-signers.) Also see Co-signer.

Co-op Mailing
A mailing in which two or more offers, usually from different companies, are included in the same envelope. Typically, both companies share the costs of the mailing.

Co-signer
A second person that enters into a loan agreement, guaranteeing to make the payments if the borrower defaults. (People who have not established credit or people with poor credit ratings may need co-signers.) Also see Co-maker.

Coarse Classing
Attributes that are used in fine classing are grouped into larger groups to reduce the total number of attributes and to ensure that the sample count for each attribute is statistically significant. See Operational Grouping and Grouping.

COBOL
Abbreviation for COmmon Business Oriented Language. COBOL is a universal language that can be used for development on any computer: mainframe, mini and microcomputer. It has been the language of choice for entry level programmers for many years as it is the best language for core business applications.

Codicils
This refers to an amendment made to an existing will. The overall will does not change, only the aspect referred to by the codicil.

Coding
The process of preparing the information on the credit applications and the associated credit bureau reports, in order to be placed into computer-usable form.

Cohort
A group of items sharing a common quality, for example all accounts that were opened in the same month. Also known as a Tranche.

Coincident Flow Rates
The product of the individual net flows from current to write-off for a given two-month period. Changes in the flow rates provide a measure of the overall efficiency of the collections department.

Coincident Indicators
These indicators occur at approximately the same time as the condition it signifies. These indicators change at the same time as the economy or stock market.

Collaborative Filtering
Collaborative filtering is a technology utilised primarily to predict the preference of an individual. The basic premise of collaborative filtering is that people with similar tastes tend to like similar type of items. Collaborative filtering requires a fairly representative sample of individuals, and a rich record of preferences or purchase histories to work effectively.

Collateral
1) Refers to assets set aside and pledged to a lender for the duration of a loan. If the borrower fails to meet the loan obligations, the lender has a claim to these assets. 2) One of the Three C’s of Credit: Character, Capacity and Collateral. Also see Security.

Collateral Security
This is extra security provided by a borrower to back up their intention to repay a loan. An example would be handing over the right of title to property, which the lender could take over and sell in the event of a loan default.

Collateralised Bond Obligation
An investment-grade bond backed by a pool of junk bonds. Junk bonds are typically not investment grade, but because they pool several types of credit-quality bonds together, they offer enough diversification to be investment grade.

Collateralised Debt Obligation
A general, exclusive term that covers collateralised bond obligations, collateralised loan obligations, and collateralised mortgage obligations.

Collateralised Loan Obligation
A special-purpose vehicle with securitisation payments in the form of different tranches. Financial institutions back this security with receivables from loans.

Collateralised Mortgage Obligation
A type of mortgage-backed security that creates separate pools of pass-through rates for different classes of bondholders with varying maturities, called tranches. The repayments from the pool of pass-through securities are used to retire the bonds in order specified by the bonds prospectus.

Collection
An account in default for which the creditor attempts to receive payment. Indicates any account/trade that reflects a collection status, special comment, narrative, remarks, or collection segment ID.

Collections Scorecard
A statistically derived behaviour scorecard developed for predicting the future risk of accounts in the early stages of collections.

Combination Variables
The process of computing a new variable based on two or more other variables. This adds to the power of highly correlated variables and can also be used when building behaviour scoring templates.

Combined Rule
User rules that are linked together to form more complex questions than simple rules, requiring a Yes or No answer.

Commercial Bank
An institution whose main business activity is taking deposits and making loans for commercial or consumer purposes.

Commitment
A legally binding bank obligation to provide loans up to a specified amount for a specified period. This type of lending agreement usually includes protective covenants that would limit/terminate the commitment upon specified signs of adverse changes in credit quality or loan use.

COmmon Business Oriented Language
Also known as COBOL. COBOL is a universal language that can be used for development on any computer: mainframe, mini and microcomputer. It has been the language of choice for entry level programmers for many years as it is the best language for core business applications.

Common Causes
Causes of variations that is inherent to a process over time. They cause the rhythmic, common variations in the system of causes, and affect every outcome of the process and everyone working in the process. See Control Chart.

Common Data Architecture
A comprehensive data architecture that provides a common context within which an integrated data resource is developed so that it adequately supports the business demand for information.

Common Data Modelling
The process of developing a model of the integrated data resource within a common data architecture. The process facilitates the integration of existing data and increases the awareness and understanding of the data. It is a process to plan the distribution of data based on business needs and the physical operating environment.

Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
A programming interface that enables a Web server to communicate with an external program and to pass the results back to a user. Also see Interface.

Common Programming Interface-Communications.
Abbreviated as CPI-C. An application-level interface for direct program-to-program communication.

Communications Port
The place on the back of your computer where you plug in your modem. Also known as a Comm Port or Serial Port.

Company Card
A credit or charge card issued to companies and used by named employees. Companies receive a statement for each card, as well as one showing the total spent on all their cards.

Competitive Advantage
Arises from discovering and implementing ways of competing that are unique and distinctive from those of rivals, and that can be sustained over time.

Compiled List
Names and addresses taken from directories, newspapers, public records etc. It also refers to people who have something in common. Compiled lists are usually the least useful or responsive for direct marketing campaigns, as Response Lists tend to generate higher response rates.

Compiler
Software that translates a program in source code form into machine-level code to allow the computer to perform the program's instructions. The output from a compiler is called an object module.

Complexity theory
A mathematical theory that attempts to rank problems by how difficult they are to solve.

Compliance
A process where Visa/MasterCard resolves disputes between members arising from violations of the international operating regulations, when the issuing member can certify that a financial loss has occurred, or will occur, for a specific amount and no chargeback right is available.

Compound Annual Growth Rate
Also known as CAGR. The year-over-year growth rate applied to an investment or other part of a company`s activities over a multiple-year period.

Compound Flows
The percentage of the balances that are current, which will eventually be written-off. This is a method of making reserves or provisions for write-off.

Comprehensive Insurance
This form of insurance covers any number of eventualities. For example, comprehensive vehicle insurance covers vehicle repair in the event of an accident or fire, protection in the event of vehicle theft or hijacking, and cover for third party damage.

Computation Period
The number of years from now that you can safely project Customer Lifetime Value. The Computation Period is shorter for products that soon become obsolete.

Computer Illiterate
People who claim that they don`t know anything about computers or who have actually never used a computer.

Computer Literate
People who feel they know enough about computers to get around without any assistance or who have mastered the art and science of computing.

Computer Simulation
A computer technique to predict the outcome of various events in the future, given many variables. When there are many variables, simulation is often the only way to reasonably predict the outcome.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
The software, hardware and programming necessary to integrate the computer and telephone so that they can work together seamlessly and intelligently. See Database Call Handling.

Computer Wiz
Someone who is brilliant at all things that are computer-related.

Concentrator
A financial institution or a third party service provider that has been retained by a biller to handle payment and/or remittance of data.

Conditional
The observation or measurement of a phenomenon for a subgroup of cases where the value of one (or more) particular variable(s) is held constant.

Conditional Data Structure Integrity
A rule for documenting data relation cardinality.

Conditional Data Value Integrity
Data integrity that specifies whether the values in data characteristics are required, optional, or prevented under certain conditions.

Confidence Interval
The range and associated probability of the estimate of a given event.

Confidence Level
In risk analysis, the degree of assurance that a specified failure rate is not exceeded.

Confidentiality Agreement
An agreement which precedes any contract with an outsourcing agency, ensuring that a company’s confidential information will not be disclosed to other companies.

Confirmed Credit
A letter of credit in which the issuing bank’s obligation to pay is backed or confirmed by a second bank.

Confounding
The condition where it is impossible to determine which of two or more variables is responsible for an observed effect.

Congestion
The excessive density of traffic in a data communication path where the load to exceed the capacity.

Conglomerate
A corporation that has diversified its operations usually by acquiring enterprises in widely varied industries.

Conjoint Analysis
Also referred to as Feature Trade-Off Analysis. A method for establishing respondents’ utilities based on the preferences they express for combinations of product attributes and features.

Connection Weights
Referring to the weight associated with a connection between two nodes in a neural network. The target node contains a summation function of some form to add up the connection weights of the arcs arriving at the target node from the source nodes.

Consideration
Financial term. The money value of a share transaction, prior to the inclusion of commissions, stamp duty and associated costs.

Consolidated Balance Sheet
A balance sheet showing the financial condition of a corporation and its subsidiaries.

Consolidation Loan
A loan offered as a means of amalgamating a number of other, smaller loans, (usually from multiple lenders), particularly where the customer may be in arrears. The loan principal is generally paid out to the other lenders.

Consolidator
A Bill Service Provider (BSP) that consolidates bills from other BSPs or billers and delivers them for presentment to the customer service provider. Also referred to as a Bill Consolidator.

Consumer
Any private individual.

Consumer credit
Credit extended to a person primarily for personal, family, or household purposes

Consumer Price Index (CPI)
An index showing changes in the cost of living, or inflation, based on the average cost of a ‘basket’ of goods and services.

Contact
A point of electrical connection between a smart card and its external interface device.

Contact Card
Any card where information is transferred to a reader via a series of contact points located on the card.

Contactless Card
Smart card which transfers data using radio frequency technology via a transmitter and receiver.

Contested Matter
A dispute among the parties in a bankruptcy proceeding, instituted by the filing of a motion of the court.

Contingency
An event that may or may not occur.

Continuation
A mailing to the same list following a successful test of a portion of the list. A continuation becomes a ‘rollout’ when the entire list is mailed.

Continuity
Products or services that are bought as a series of small purchases, rather than all at one time. For example, the Book of The Month Club, or other products shipped on a regular schedule.

Continuous
A variable is said to be continuous or quantitative if its values are real numbers such as age, income, amount purchased.

Continuous Characteristic
A characteristic that has a continuous set of values. For example, Age, (18-110), Income, (0-multi-billionaire), Time at Address, (0-110).

Continuous Fields
Fields that have a numeric or regularly ordered range of values, like age, for example, 45, 46, 47, and so on.

Continuous Outcome
Situations where the dependent variable has a continuum of values, e.g. revenue.

Contract
An agreement entered into by parties who intend to bind themselves thereby. There must be consensus between the parties as to the material terms of the contract.

Contract of Sale
The agreement between the buyer and seller on the purchase price, terms, and conditions of a sale.

Contractual Delinquency
The level of an accounts delinquency calculated by the total number of months of outstanding payments due.

Contractually Liable
Those parties who are expressly obligated to repay all debts arising on an account by reason of an agreement to that effect.

Control Chart
A control chart identifies two types of variation in a process, common causes and special causes. See Common Causes.

Control Group
In a test or experiment, two or more samples of accounts will be selected. The control group has no changes made to it, whereas the test groups will be treated in different ways. The outcome of the test is determined by measuring the results from the different groups

Controller
A device for managing the data input and output from several devices, which are connected with a mainframe. These devices can include terminals, disks or tape drives. Controllers usually contain a small processor, which permits them to manage the flow of instructions from the computer to the units in an organised manner.

Convenience User
A cardholder who pays the balance in full on each payment due date.

Convergence
In information technology, convergence is a term for the combining of personal computers, telecommunication, and television into a user experience that is accessible to everyone.

Conversion
The transfer of data from off-line storage to on-line storage.

Conversion Rate
The percentage of responders who become customers.

Converted Characteristic
A characteristic that requires some form of conversion from the raw information provided. For example, Age can be converted from a customer's Date of Birth.

Convertible Bond
A bond the holder can convert into a specified number of shares issued by the company that initiated the bond. Also known as Convertible Securities.

Convertible Securities
A bond the holder can convert into a specified number of shares issued by the company that initiated the bond. Also known as Convertible Bond.

Cookie
A file that is created by a Web site and stored and updated on the visitor’s computers. It can be used by a Web site to record data about the user, enabling it to produce a customised response.

Copy
The text contained within a direct mail campaign.

Copyright
Legal rights to commercialise, license, transfer, broadcast or reproduce an original piece of work, irrespective of its supporting media.

Core Competencies
A buzzword that is used to describe what a person or company does well.

Cornea Gumbo
A visually noisy or over-designed Web site that has too many graphics or too much animation.

Corporate Card
A bankcard issued to companies for use by company employees. The liability for abuse of the card usually rests with the company and not with the employee.

Corporate Data
All of the databases of the company. This includes legacy systems, old and new transaction systems, general business systems, client/server databases, data warehouses and data marts.

Corporate Social Responsibility
Awareness, acceptance and management of the implications and effects of all corporate decision making.

Correlated Exposure
The exposure that takes into account the impact of correlation between two or more factors in question.

Correlation
The interdependence between two or more characteristics, which can be explained by a linear relationship.

Correlation Coefficient
A correlation coefficient is a number between -1 and 1 which measures the degree to which two variables are linearly related. If there is perfect linear relationship with positive slope between the two variables, we have a correlation coefficient of 1. If there is a perfect linear relationship with negative slope between the two variables, we have a correlation coefficient of -1; if there is negative correlation. A correlation coefficient of 0 means that there is no linear relationship between the variables.

Correspondent Bank
A bank that accepts deposits and performs banking services for other banks. Correspondent banking arrangements exist between local banks and banks located throughout the world.

COS
Card Operating System.

Cost Centre
An accounting term that refers to a department or function in the organisation that does not generate profit.

Cost Delay
The money a company pays to queue callers, assuming a toll-free service telephone

Cost of Capital
The rate of return that has to be earned on new initiatives or business ventures so that the value of the company and the market price of the common stock does not decline.

Cost of Goods Sold
These are the costs directly related to items sold. This includes wages, salaries, raw materials, depreciation, obsolescence, utilities and expenditure on any associated supplies or services.

Cost Per Inquiry
This is calculated by dividing the total cost of a mailing or an advertisement by the number of inquiries received. See CPI.

Cost Per Order
This is similar to Cost Per Inquiry, except it is based on actual orders rather than just inquiries. See CPO.

Counter Implementation
Refers to attempts to block change without displaying overt opposition.

Counter-party Credit Ratings
Ratings assigned under the Corporate Credit Rating Service (formerly called the Credit Assessment Service) and Sovereign Credit Ratings which are forms of issuer credit ratings. Issuer credit ratings are based on current information furnished by obligors or obtained by Standard & Poor’s from other sources it considers reliable.

Counterclaim
A claim made by a Defendant against a Plaintiff. This is a cross action which does not amount simply to a defence of the original claim.

Counterfeit Card
A plastic card which has been fraudulently printed, embossed, or encoded to appear to be a genuine bankcard, but which has not been authorised by MasterCard or VISA or issued by a member. A card originally issued by a member but subsequently altered without the issuer's knowledge or consent.

Counterpart
The other party in a trade arrangement. Typically, one party refers to their trading party as their ‘counterpart’.

Counterparty
One party to a trade. Trade can occur between two or more counterparties.

Covariance
A measure of the extent to which two numeric variables are linearly related.

Covenant
An agreement or promise in the form of a deed, binding the person/s signing it to undertake or refrain from certain activities. The covenant also usually includes the transfer of specified payments.

CPI
Consumer Price Index. An index showing changes in the cost of living, or inflation, based on the average cost of a ‘basket’ of goods and services.

CPI
Acronym for Cost Per Inquiry, which is calculated by dividing the total cost of a mailing or an advertisement by the number of inquiries received.

CPI-C
Common Programming Interface-Communications. An application-level interface for direct program-to-program communication.

CPO
Acronym for Cost Per Order. This is similar to CPI, except it is based on actual orders rather than just inquiries.

CPU
Acronym for Central Processing Unit. This is the heart of a mainframe or PC.

CQL
Card Query Language.

Crackable
A computer system that is vulnerable to being hacked by a cracker.

Cracker
Someone who breaks the security on a system.

Cram-down Rules
The order of payment used in many bankruptcy litigation systems. Typically, major creditors are fully compensated before minor creditors receive anything, and minor creditors are fully compensated before shareholders receive anything. In practice, lower status creditors and shareholders often receive some degree of compensation for expediting the settlement process. Also known as the Absolute Priority Rule (APR).

Crash
When a computer or network suddenly stops working, it has crashed.

Credit
The right granted by a creditor to an applicant to defer payment of a debt, incur debt and defer its payment, or purchase property or services and defer payment.

Credit Bureau
A reporting agency that assembles information on borrowers to help lenders evaluate credit worthiness. Borrowers are entitled to see their credit report and dispute or add to the information they feel is erroneous. Objection(s) must be filed in writing with the report. Also see Credit Report and Bureaux.

Credit Bureau Report
The information resulting from an enquiry to a Credit Bureau. At minimum this will be judgments or enquiry volumes. Many countries Credit Bureau also provide data on current and previous loans and accounts.

Credit Bureau Score
The total number of points gained by an applicant, derived solely from data available from the Credit Bureau.

Credit Bureau Score
Is developed on pooled data, provided by all contributing credit grantors. Characteristics are based on payments, usage and delinquency across all accounts that an individual has. Expressed as a score, this enables a lender to have an industry-wide, global view of the credit risk and predicted future performance of a customer.

Credit Card
A type of payment card that gives the cardholder the option to pay less than the full amount of the statement each month.

Credit Community
A website established for the South African and international credit industry, featuring articles of interest to risk and credit management professionals. Registration is free at www.credit.co.za.

Credit Default Swap
A swap in which A pays B the periodic fee, and B pays A the floating payment that depends on whether a predefined credit even has occurred, or not. The fee might be quarterly, semi-annual, or annual. The credit event might be a declaration of bankruptcy or violation of a bond indenture or loan agreement.

Credit Default Swap
A swap designed to transfer the credit exposure of fixed income products between parties. The buyer of a credit swap receives credit protection, whereas the seller of the swap guarantees the creditworthiness of the product. By doing this, the risk of default is transferred from the holder of the fixed income security to the seller of the swap.

Credit Deposit
The value of a merchant's credit card purchases that are credited to its bank account after the acquiring bank buys the merchant's sales slips. The deposit is credited but is not funded until the acquiring bank gets the monetary value from the issuer during settlement. Also referred to as Deposit Credit.

Credit Disability and Credit Life Insurance
Optional insurance that (a) makes loan payments if an illness or accident hinders an account holder to earn income or (b) pays the remaining balance if an account holder dies. Generally, this insurance is included in the monthly payments.

Credit Enhancement
Methods that reduce the credit exposure from a counterparty, e.g. letter of credit, guarantee.

Credit Exposure
The amount subject to either changes in value upon credit quality up (down)grade or loss in the event of default.

Credit History
A record of how a person has borrowed and repaid debts.

Credit Insurance
This is completely optional insurance. There are many types, including credit life, credit disability, or credit unemployment (loss of income). Credit insurance can be purchased from the lender either as: (1) a monthly charge that is added to each monthly mortgage payment or (2) as a lump sum that is charged upfront and is generally added to the amount of the loan.

Credit Life Insurance.
This is completely optional insurance which is geared to settle all or a portion of a mortgage liability in the event of the death of the lender.

Credit Limit
The maximum outstanding monetary amount the cardholder (account holder) is permitted to incur at any time.

Credit Line
The monetary amount a consumer has available for use.

Credit Loss
The amount lost (charged off) as a result of failure of the cardholder to repay the amount owed on the account.

Credit Rating
A judgment of someone`s ability to repay debts and is based on current and projected income and history of past debt payments.

Credit Reference Agency
Reference agencies verify identity and the credit history of credit applicants. See Bureaux.

Credit Reference Information
The information resulting from an enquiry to a credit bureau’s database. In the UK this includes judgments, voters roll, previous search and shared financial/non-financial account information.

Credit Report
A report by a credit bureau of an individual’s available credit and their payment history, including on-time payments, late payments, and the number of times a loan payment was missed. Judgment liens to collect a debt, bankruptcy petitions, and tax liens may also be included.

Credit Reporting Agency
A company that collects and sells information about how people manage credit.

Credit Risk
The risk that counterparty to a financial transaction will fail to perform according to the terms and conditions of the contract, thus causing the asset holder to suffer a financial loss.

Credit Risk Intelligence
Any technology that lets users independently access and analyse credit risk data with the objective of delivering valuable credit risk information for timely, informed decision-making.

Credit Score
The sum of the points awarded to an applicant for the appropriate attribute of each of the characteristics in a scoring table. If the credit score is at or above the cut-off score, then the application is recommended for acceptance. If the credit score is below the cut-off score, then the application is recommended for rejection.

Credit Scoring
An objective methodology widely used by credit grantors to make credit decisions. Also known as Point Scoring.

Credit Scoring System
The credit scoring algorithm used to calculate scores.

Credit Spread
The excess of the yield on a note having credit risk over a comparable note not having credit risk.

Credit Strategy
A strategic function responsible for optimising credit losses versus business development. Also known as Risk Management.

Credit Transaction
Every aspect of an applicant’s dealings with a creditor concerning an application for credit or an extension of existing credit, including, but not limited to, information requirements; investigation procedures; standards of creditworthiness; terms of credit; furnishing of credit information, revocation, alteration, or termination of credit; and collection procedures.

Credit Tug of War
The term given to the ongoing conflict between risk management departments, whose aim is to minimise risk and charge-offs and the marketing department, whose aim is to maximise the volume of new accounts.

Credit Union
A co-operative association that offers loans to its members at low interest rates.

Creditmaster Fraud
Is a website that generates sequences of 16-digit credit card numbers from valid BIN numbers, the first six digits of the credit card. Fraudsters use this to make purchases online.

Creditor
A person who, in the ordinary course of business, (a) regularly participates in the decision of whether or not to extend credit, including a creditor’s assignee or transferee, who so participates and (b) regularly refers applicants or prospective applicants to creditors, or selects, or offers to select creditors to whom requests for credit may be made.

Creditor
Any person to whom money is owed. May be secured or unsecured.

Creditworthiness
The general qualification for borrowing in the opinion of a lender, as based on a borrower’s credit history or as determined by a credit scoring system.

Crimeware
A malicious category of software programs that assists criminals in accessing a computer user`s online accounts at financial services companies, for the purpose of stealing the user`s private financial information.

Criminal Action
A legal proceeding where the State prosecutes an individual for an act or omission, which is punishable by law.

Crippleware
A form of demoware that has a product`s best features disabled. Crippleware can only be unlocked with a special code which you receive when you pay the shareware fee. See Shareware.

Crisp Logic
When all data fits or is classified into specific categories.

Critical Differentiators
Aspects about an idea, product, service or business model that makes it unique and different from the competition.

Critical Mass
Having the right amount of customers or market share to be profitable. Also see Market Share.

Critical Success Factors
Those aspects of a strategy that must be achieved to successfully meet objectives and secure competitive advantage.

Cross Counts
Cross tabulations of any characteristic against score bands to show the score distributions of the attributes. Also known as Cross-tabulations.

Cross-border Trading
Trade taking place between persons or entities from two or more different countries.

Cross-Channel Marketing
Using one sales channel to promote another.

Cross-selling
Encouraging customers to buy products from other departments or categories

Cross-tabulations
Two-dimensional tables listing the applications in the development sample that fall within combinations of score intervals and attribute groups of characteristics. For example, how many good and bad credit unaware applicants score between 180 and 184. Also known as Cross Counts.

Cross-validation
A method for estimating the accuracy of a statistic that is based on a small sample size.

Cryptic Password
A password that is ambiguous and does not have a meaning.

Cryptography
Cryptography is the science of information security. The word is derived from the Greek kryptos, meaning hidden. Objectives key objectives include cconfidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation and authentication. See Authentication.

CSS
Abbreviated for Cascading Style Sheet. A set of specifications that control how HTML elements are displayed in a Web browser. CSS can be used to specify fonts, sizes, and colors of the text in HTML documents. Cascading style sheets make it easier for authors of HTML documents to maintain a consistent style on multiple pages.

CTI
Abbreviation for Computer Telephony Integration. The software, hardware and programming necessary to integrate the computer and telephone so that they can work together seamlessly and intelligently. See Database Call Handling.

Cure Rate
Accounts that are in arrears and the person make`s the qualifying payment to put them back into an up to date state.

Currencies
The term used to refer to the monetary denominations used by different countries.

Currency Conversion
The process of converting the currency involved in the transaction into the currency of settlement or the currency of the issuer.

Current
An account considered to have a good paying status with the creditor in which payments are received at the designated monthly time frame by the creditor.

Current Account
The account used to write cheques or use a debit card against. Also known in the US as a Checking Account.

Current Assets
Current assets include all items reasonably expected to be converted into cash, sold, or consumed within 12 months.

Current Credit Exposure
For market-driven instruments, the amount it would cost to replace a transaction today should the be a default by the counterparty. If there is an enforceable netting agreement with the counterparty, the current exposure is the net replacement cost. Alternatively it is the gross amount.

Current Liabilities
Current liabilities are all obligations reasonably expected to be settled in the next 12 months. This includes obligations that are due on demand, or will be due on demand, within 12 months.

Current Risk
The risk exposure presented in the given month based on the prior month's processing volumes.

Current Yield
The annual rate of return on a security or stock, calculated by dividing the interest or dividends paid, by the current market price for the stock.

Cushion
An amount of money, occasionally required by a lender, which is set aside to protect the lender against increases in expenses.

Custodial
Typically, this term is used to explain the powers appointed to the guardian of a child such as taking decisions relating to upbringing and education. Custody can also refer to the role of an institution in holding items for safe keeping on behalf of others. See Basic Custody.

Custodian
A bank that holds assets on behalf of investors.

Custom Report
A report that once designed, exactly meets the requirements of the company. Once programmed, the report can be run daily, weekly or monthly, for very little cost.

Custom Scorecard
This scorecard is built using past applicants from the organisations portfolio where each applicant’s subsequent performance is evaluated. In the case where past data is not available, due to the portfolio being new or where past information was not collected an Expert Scorecard would be built.

Customer Consolidation
One of four models of electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP). Bill content and payment instructions and/or a payment mechanism are sent to the customer via e-mail. Other models include: Biller Direct, Thick Consolidator and Thin Consolidator.

Customer Identification File (CIF)
A computerised central file of information on a bank`s customers and their account and credit information.

Customer Information File
This is a consolidation of many different accounts held by a household or individual and it is often used for marketing purposes, by banks and other financial institutions. Also known as CIF.

Customer Life Cycle
In customer relationship management (CRM), customer life cycle is a term used to describe the progression of steps a customer goes through when considering, purchasing, using, and maintaining loyalty to a product or service.

Customer Lifetime Value
The contribution to overheads and profit made by a customer during their total relationship with your company. See Computation Period, LTV and Acquisition Cost.

Customer Scoring
Developing and applying scorecards at the customer level instead of at an individual product or account level. A Customer Score takes into account all of the products held by the customer, and is thus used to make customer-level decisions, such as setting an overall credit limit that can be apportioned between different products.

Customer Service Representative (CSR)
The person who handles incoming or outgoing calls. Also referred to as an agent, telephone sales or telephone service representative (TSR), rep, associate, consultant, engineer, operator, technician, account executive, team member, customer service.

Cut-off Score
The minimum score required for a credit application to be approved. This represents the boundary between accepted and rejected applications and it is set by the credit grantor.

Cut-off Strategy
The strategy which determines the cut-off score. This will be driven by either the required volume of accepted accounts, the acceptable bad rate or a combination of these.

CVC
Abbreviation for Card Verification Code. A unique value calculated from the data encoded on the magnetic stripe of a MasterCard card, validating card information during the authorisation process.

CVV
Acronym for Card Verification Value. A unique check value encoded on the magnetic stripe of a credit card to validate card information during the authorisation process. The card verification value is calculated from the data encoded on the magnetic stripe using a secure cryptographic process.

Cyber Call Centre
A new generation of call centres that is internet-enabled to handle all channels of communication with customer, including electronic mail, Internet, fax, letters, video conference and telephone. Customer service agents can see the same Web page as the customer and help them to navigate or fill in Web-based forms. They can also telephone customers in response to a ‘call me’ button on the Web page or communicate with customers through a video conference session.

Cyberspace
A term coined by sci-fi novelist William Gibson, who said in 1996: "Cyberspace has a nice buzz to it, it's something that an advertising man might have thought up, and when I got it I knew that it was slick and essentially hollow and that I'd have to fill it up with meaning". Since then the world's meaning has rapidly expanded. Generally it is used to refer to the spaces within computers and the spaces between computers (across networks) where people interact with information and with each other.

Cycle
The grouping of cardholder accounts to provide for a distribution of workload and easier account identification.

Cycle Billing
The preparation of monthly cardholder statements by group or cycle for the purpose of evenly distributing the workload and receipt of cardholder payments.

Cycle Period
A specific period of time during which both debit and credit transactions are accumulated from billing.

Cycles Delinquent
The number of billing cycles that an account has failed to make a qualifying payment for. For example 2 cycles delinquent means that an account has missed 2 qualifying payments. See Dunning Level.