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Independent Sales Organization (I.S.O.). Represents a Bank or Bank/Processor alliance. It provides a variety of merchant functions (i.e. processing) on behalf of the acquirer and is allowed to mark up the Fees and sign up merchants.

Integrated Point of Sale (IPOS). This refers to conventional terminals which may be set-up to communicate with like terminals owned by the same merchant. These terminals may be located at different locations and with different merchant numbers.

Interchange. The electronic exchange of financial and non-financial data between merchant acquirers and card issuers.

Interchange Fee. The interchange fee is a percentage applied to the money value of each transaction and is paid by the acquirer to the issuer to compensate for transaction-related costs. MasterCard and Visa establish interchange fee rates.

Interchange Rate. The interchange rate is a percentage of the transaction amount. This rate is set and charged by the bankcard association to the acquiring banks for the credit card transaction. It also helps account for general or average banks cost of funds, fraud and authorization costs.

Internet Merchant. A merchant that takes payments over the internet or through the mail.

Internet Payment Gateway. A service that gives merchants the ability to perform real-time transactions from a web site over the Internet.

Issuing Bank (Issuing Financial Institution). Issuing bank maintains the consumer's credit card account. It pays out to the merchant's account in a credit card purchase.