IBDP
Internet Bill Delivery and Payment is an Internet-based service that securely and reliably delivers statements, invoices and related information to the biller and/or designated payee.

IC
Integrated Circuit. An electronic circuit, processing information. Also referred to as a chip.

ICA Number
A four-digit number printed on a MasterCard credit card. This number identifies the issuing bank that assigned the card to the cardholder.

ICC
Acronym for Integrated Circuit Card. An ICC is a card embedded with an integrated circuit chip that communicates information to a point-of-transaction terminal.

Icon
The small images located on a desktop or Web browser, which you click on to activate a program or a link.

ICT
Abbreviation for Information and Communication Technology

ID Card
Card, which identifies both the bearer and the issuer. All financial transaction cards are ID cards.

ID Number
A number assigned to a record to help to relate it to other records in the database, which have the same ID.

IDEA
The International Data Encryption Algorithm is a symmetric key block cipher algorithm.

Identification
The process whereby a customer identifies himself with the company that provides him with products or services.

Identity Theft
Skilled identity thieves use a variety of methods to gain access to your personal information and then use this information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft. See South African Fraud Prevention Service, Fraud or Lost Card Protection.

IDSL
ISDN Digital Subscriber Line. This technology is symmetrical and operates at slower speeds and longer distances.

Illiquid
An investment is considered to be illiquid if it cannot be easily converted back into cash and at a low cost.

Immobilisation
This is the process of centrally storing share certificates and documents of title with a depositor. Electronic versions of the documents are then created, allowing for trade without having to physically move certificates, except when these are withdrawn from the depository. See Dematerialisation.

Immunisation
Strategy which consists in protecting a portfolio yield from the risks connected with interest rate variations.

Implied Agreement
Where the terms of a contract or agreement are inferred from the circumstances, the way people act or the way in which things are done. Even a written agreement my have certain terms, which are implied by the circumstances.

Imprinter
A device used by merchants to imprint embossed card information onto the sales drafts for bankcard transactions.

In Country
The EU Member states participating in the European Monetary Union.

Inactive Rule
A rule in a rule set that is turned off and is not evaluated.

Inactives
Accounts that are not used very frequently or heavily by the customer.

Inadvertent Error
A mechanical, electronic, or clerical error that a creditor demonstrates was not intentional and occurred notwithstanding the maintenance of procedures reasonably adapted to avoid such errors.

Inbound Telemarketing
A process whereby call centres are established to either accept telephone orders directly from customers or to collect information for future marketing purposes. This is often employed in conjunction with either print or broadcast direct response advertising campaigns.

Incidental Credit
Extensions of consumer credit other than credit of the types offered by established businesses; for example, credit offered by a medical or dental professional or office.

Income
The income of the customer. This needs to be specified and standardised on the application form, in order to be useful. For example, is the income Net, Gross, Weekly or Monthly?

Income Before Taxes
This is calculated with the formula: Operating Income - Interest Expense + Interest Income +/- Other Income/Expense.

Independence
When there is no degree of association of any type between two characteristics. In reality, there is typically some degree of association between almost any two characteristics.

Independent Sales Organisation
An organisation that processes credit card transactions. An ISO represents the processor and markets the service in exchange for transaction fees.

Independent Sales Organisation (ISO)
Also called a member service provider. An outside company (not MasterCard or VISA member) which is contracted by members to administer merchant and/or cardholder servicing.

Independent Variable
The known items of information that are used to predict or estimate the values of the unknown or independent variables. Also known as Predictor Variable or Feature.

Indeterminate Accounts
Accounts that are neither good nor bad. They may be too young to have established behaviour patterns or mildly delinquent, making them too bad to be classified as good and too good to be classified as bad.

Index
Statistical composite that measures changes in the economy or in financial markets, often expressed in percentage changes from a base year or from the previous month.

Inductive Reasoning
Establishing a conclusion through observation.

Industry
A distinctive group of productive or profit making enterprises.

Industry Code
An alpha or numeric code found within the subscriber code number that is used by credit bureaus to derive the originating industry from which credit data is being reported. See Subscriber Code.

Industry Server
A computer that facilitates electronic financial transactions and information flows. Servers function either via private (Intranet) or public (Internet) communication networks.

Industry Type
A subset of the industry code that is used by the credit bureaus to derive the subset of the originating industry. See Subscriber Code.

Influentials
In the business-to-business environment, this refers to executives who have the authority to make or influence a purchase.

Information
Useful knowledge derived from data.

Information
Useful knowledge derived from data.

Information Broadcasting
Information broadcasting is the proactive delivery of value-added information to individual decision-makers via everyday devices.

Information Odds
The statistical odds that an applicant will become a good risk. It is calculated from the information known about the applicant.

Information Systems
These are the part of the company responsible for the central data processing operations. See IS.

Information Value
A measure of the contribution that any characteristic is likely to make to a scorecard. See Scorecard Power.

Informational Overrides
Occurs when the decision recommended by the score is reversed, as the credit grantor is in possession of additional information that was not included in the development of the scorecard or is specific to an individual applicant. For example, an applicant has scored well but has just been sent to prison.

INFORMPLUS
Fair Isaac's proprietary scorecard development software.

Infrastructure
The process of maintaining a database. For example, nightly backup, cleaning, merge/purge, de-duplication, update, etc.

Inheritance
A benefit accruing to an individual, usually via a deceased estate.

Initial Enumeration
This is a display of the actual counts of each of the characteristics and all of their associated attributes. See Classing.

Initialisation
The programming of a smart card chip with data identical to that of a batch of cards. See Smart Card.

Innovation
Something new or improved, having marketable potential, including
(1) development of new technologies
(2) refinement of existing technologies, or
(3) development of new applications for existing technologies.

Inquiry
A line of information indicating a request for a credit profile and naming the credit-extending agency making the request.

Insolvency
Commercial Insolvency refers to a situation where a person/entity is unable to pay his debt as and when they fall due or discharge his liabilities. This must be distinguished from actual insolvency, where one’s liabilities exceed one’s assets.

Insolvent
One who is unable to meet or pay his liabilities and who in consequence has surrendered his estate for the benefit of his creditors or whose estate has been compulsorily sequestrated by a creditor/creditors.

Instalment
An account relationship where the credit obligation and the payment amounts are established for a fixed period of time. Set payments are made at agreed intervals until the debt is fulfilled.

Institutional Investors
These are investors who participate in the market on behalf of their clients and members. Examples include banks and pension funds.

Insufficient Experience Accounts
Credit accounts that are eliminated from the sampling process because they are too new, or have not had sufficient activity, to be categorised as good.

Intangible Assets
These are assets of a non-physical character and include items such as copyrights, goodwill, patents, trademarks, product licences, and import and export permits.

Integrated Circuit Card
An ICC is a card embedded with an integrated circuit chip that communicates information to a point-of-transaction terminal.

Integrated Circuit Chip
An electronic component designed to perform processing or memory functions.

Integrated Circuit Memory Cards
This category of card can store data, but does not have the added processor on the card. Processing occurs within the link to the associated software and hardware used to read the information.

Integrated Circuit Microprocessor Cards
This type of card allows for the adding, deleting, or manipulating of the information held in memory. Essentially it equips a variety of applications with a dynamic reading and writing capability. Most mobile SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module) applications make use of this category of smart card.

Integrated Services Digital Network
This is a system that allows voice, data and video images to be carried over the public telephone network. See ISDN and Basic Rate Interface.

Intellectual Capital
The term combines the idea of the intellect or brainpower with the economic concept of capital, the saving of entitled benefits so that they can be invested in producing more goods and services. Intellectual capital can include the skills and knowledge that a company has developed about its goods or services or employees whose knowledge is deemed critical to a company's continued success.

Intelligence Agents
Computer programs able to act independently based on limited decision-making capabilities.

Interaction
An effect on the relationships between two or more variables where the direction of the relationship (that is, positive or negative) depends on the value of another variable. For example, the relationship between diet and blood pressure changes for different age groups.

Interactive Voice Response
This is equipment connected with an ACD that permits inbound callers to a call centre to choose their own routing of the call. See also IVR and Telephone Banking.

Interbank Card Association Number (ICA)
A four-digit number assigned by MasterCard to a financial institution, third party processor, or other member to identify the member in transactions.

Interchange
The exchange of information, transaction data and money among banks. Interchange systems are managed by Visa and MasterCard associations and are very standardised so banks and merchants worldwide can use them.

Interchange Fee
Fees paid by the acquirer to the issuer to compensate for transaction-related costs. VISA and MasterCard establish interchange fee rates.

Interest
A charge for borrowed money, generally a percentage of the amount borrowed.

Interest Accrual Rate
Percentage that a borrower pays to use the money, usually expressed as an annual percentage.

Interest Rate
The cost you pay to borrow money stated as a percentage rate.

Interface
The physical and logical arrangement supporting the attachment of any device to a connector or to another device. See CGI or GUI.

Interlocutory Order
A term applied to a proceeding or an order made during the course of a lawsuit. This can also be an order, which is not final.

Intermediary
The term used for professional participants who work as go-betweens between issuers and investors. Examples of intermediaries include financial institutions, stock exchange firms and banks.

Internet
A system by which all the computers in the world talk to each other. See Electronic Banking.

Internet Bill Delivery and Payment (IBDP)
An Internet-based service that securely and reliably delivers richly formatted bills, statements, invoices, notices and associated advertising to any online consumer or business, and returns payment, remittance instructions and related information to the biller and/or designated payee.

Internet Cheque Acceptance
A payment system that allows consumers to enter their cheque information on-line; electronic items are created and processed through the Automated Clearing House Network.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
A commercial provider of a connection to the Internet, i.e., AOL, CompuServe, etc.

Interpolative
The situation where the unknown case lies within the range of values for the predictor variables used within the development of the model. This is the direct opposite to Extrapolative.

Interval
A defined range of values.

Interval Bad Rate
The proportion of the overall population that is ‘bad’ for a given score.

Interval Boundaries
Breaking points in a continuous field that divide the field into intervals.

Interval Odds
The odds applying across a score band.

Interval Statistics
A table of scoring results that shows, for each score, the percentage of applicants that can be expected to achieve any particular score.

Intervalised
The process of converting the values of continuous variables into ranges. For example, applicant age is a continuous variable, running from 18 – 110, intervalisation would lead to setting ranges, such as under 25, 25-30, 30-35, etc.

Intestate
An estate that does not have a valid will when the individual dies.

Intranet
A private version of the Internet that lets people within an organisation exchange data by using popular internet tools, such as STMP e-mail and browser.

Introductory Rate
Loans having a lower interest rate applied at inception, which is limited for a specific period. At the end of the introductory period, the interest rate will increase. It is also known as a "teaser rate."

Intuitional Overrides
Occurs when the credit grantor reverses the recommendation made by the score, for reasons other than policy or information.

IP
Acronym for Internet Protocol. Internet functions are governed by these set of rules.

IP Address
The Internet Protocol address assigned to a server or host. This is a unique number consisting of four parts separated by dots. Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP address.

IP telephony
Technology that transfers voice calls on the Internet. Also called Voice over IP and VoIP.

IS
Acronym for Information Systems, which are the part of the company responsible for the central data processing operations.

ISDN
Acronym for Integrated Services Digital Network, which is a system that allows voice, data and video images to be carried over the public telephone network.

ISDN
Acronym for Integrated Service Digital Network. ISDN is an international standard for the end-to-end digital transmission of voice, data and signalling.

ISIN
Acronym for International Securities Identification Number. This is a coding system developed by the International Standards Organisation.

ISO
Abbreviation for the Independent Sales Organisation. Also called a member service provider. An outside company (not MasterCard or VISA member) which is contracted by members to administer merchant and/or cardholder servicing.

ISO
Abbreviation for Independent Sales Organisation. An organisation that processes credit card transactions. An ISO represents the processor and markets the service in exchange for transaction fees.

ISP
Internet Service Provider. A commercial provider of a connection to the Internet, i.e., AOL, CompuServe, etc.

Issuer
A credit grantor, normally one issuing credit cards.

Issuing Bank
A bank that issues credit cards to cardholders.

IV
Acronym for Information Value. A measure of the contribution that any characteristic is likely to make to a scorecard.

IVR
Acronym for Interactive Voice Response, which is equipment connected with an ACD that permits inbound callers to a call centre to choose their own routing of the call.