Accounts receivable / accounts payable
The subsidiary ledger keeps a separate account for each business partner: receivables for customers, payables for suppliers. Only there does it become visible who owes how much and since when. A payment in tokens changes none of this. It has to take the same route as a bank transfer, be assigned to a customer or supplier account and clear the corresponding open item. Without that assignment a balance stands without a counterparty, and the accounts report it as unresolved.
AI agent
An AI agent is a software entity that pursues objectives, integrates information from multiple systems and triggers actions – for example in procurement, service or treasury. Unlike classic automation, an agent can decide context-dependently and orchestrate workflows. In payment contexts it is essential that agents operate only within clear guardrails (limits, whitelists, approvals).
AML (anti-money laundering)
Regulatory framework to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Requires identification of customers, risk-based monitoring and reporting of suspicious activity. AML obligations impact speed, documentation effort and, in some cases, the routing of cross-border payments.
ART (asset-referenced token)
Token whose value refers to a basket of assets (for example currencies and short-term instruments) rather than to a single fiat currency 1:1. Under MiCAR, asset-referenced tokens are subject to stricter governance, disclosure and supervisory requirements; transparency on composition and risk is key for corporates.
Asset segregation
Segregation means separating held assets: client holdings from the custodian's own assets and, depending on the model, clients from one another as well. An omnibus arrangement keeps all clients in one address and records the shares internally only; individual segregation gives each client an address of its own. The difference is barely noticeable in daily operation and decisive in an insolvency. It belongs among the questions answered in writing before a custodian is chosen.
Atomic settlement
Atomic settlement executes both legs of a transaction in a single step. If one fails, the other fails with it; no intermediate state arises. Technically this is how delivery versus payment comes about without an intermediary holding both sides. It requires both values to live in the same execution environment. Across two separate networks additional mechanisms are needed, and with them part of the risk that atomic execution had just removed comes back.
Audit trail
An audit trail is a chronological, traceable documentation of all relevant activities and changes in a system. In payment contexts it includes transaction IDs, timestamps, involved parties, approvals and status changes. For blockchain transactions, the on-chain hash provides additional tamper-proof evidence.
AWV reporting obligation (Germany)
Under section 67 of the German Foreign Trade and Payments Regulation (AWV), residents report to the Deutsche Bundesbank the payments they make to or receive from non-residents. Only payments above €50,000 or the equivalent in another currency are reported. Payments for the import, export or transfer of goods are exempt; services are not. The transfer of crypto-assets also counts as a payment. The report feeds the balance of payments statistics and is due by the seventh working day of the following month. The company itself has to report, not its bank.
Balance confirmation
With a balance confirmation the auditor has a third party confirm a balance at the reporting date, such as the bank for an account or the customer for a receivable. The international auditing standard ISA 505 describes such an external confirmation as a direct written response to the auditor from a third party. For a wallet there is no third party that could confirm the holding. The auditor can, however, query the balance at the block of the reporting date directly; who owns the address is then shown by a message signed by the company.
Block explorer
Online tool that allows inspection of blockchain transactions, addresses and blocks. It improves traceability (for example for payment hashes in documentation) and supports audits. Public visibility of addresses can reveal business relationships and should be considered when designing processes.
Blockchain
A specific form of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) where transactions are stored in chronologically linked blocks. Public blockchains (e.g. Ethereum) are transparent and open; private/permissioned blockchains are controlled by defined participants. Relevant for corporates for tokenization, smart contracts and traceable audit trails.
camt.053 (bank statement)
camt.053 is the ISO 20022 message with which a bank delivers one day's account statement to its customer. It carries balances, entries, references and charges in a structure an ERP can process without interpretation; its predecessor MT940 is considerably narrower. For payments on a blockchain there is no bank producing such a statement. Bringing those transactions into the familiar process means translating the events into a comparable profile.
Cash equivalents
IAS 7 defines cash equivalents as short-term, highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and subject to an insignificant risk of changes in value. A volatile crypto-asset fails the second test. This is not an academic point: loan agreements routinely define their covenants on cash and cash equivalents. If liquidity moves into a holding that is neither, ratios deteriorate without a single euro having been lost.
CBDC (central bank digital currency)
Digital central bank money – money issued directly by a central bank but in digital, tokenized or electronic form. A digital euro would be a CBDC. Unlike tokenized deposits (commercial bank money) or stablecoins (e-money), this is central bank money with the highest level of finality.
Central securities depository (CSD)
A central securities depository (CSD) keeps the central record in which securities are held and settles transactions in them. In the EU it is authorised under Regulation (EU) No 909/2014. In a securities transaction it books the securities leg; the cash leg is usually settled in central bank money. Since 2023 the DLT pilot regime has allowed CSDs to perform this task on a distributed ledger.
Chain ID & network choice
Unique identifier for a blockchain network. Using the wrong network can lead to loss of funds or tokens that do not exist in the target environment. Corporates should only use networks with sufficient availability, support and liquidity and document network and token configuration clearly.
Chart of accounts
The chart of accounts orders a company's general ledger accounts and gives them numbers. In Germany the DATEV frameworks SKR03 and SKR04 are common; one follows the process-based structure, the other the balance-sheet structure. For payment integration it is the point of connection: every event that is to be posted needs an account to receive it. A dedicated account for crypto holdings, one for network fees and one for exchange differences separates the questions the accounts will later have to answer one by one.
Cost of acquisition
Under section 255 (1) of the German Commercial Code, cost of acquisition is the purchase price of an asset plus the incidental costs of obtaining it, less any price reductions. For a token this means the equivalent in the functional currency on the day of acquisition, plus network and provider fees to the extent they are attributable to the acquisition. As long as the asset is measured at cost, that amount caps the carrying value. A price rise above it stays invisible in the accounts; a fall below it does not.
Counterparty
The counterparty is the other side of a transaction or a payment. In classic payment routes the bank details carry a name; on a blockchain there is only an address, which says nothing about its holder. The link between address and counterparty is therefore master-data work and belongs in place before the first payment runs. Without it neither an open item can be cleared nor a sanctions check meaningfully performed.
Counterparty risk
Counterparty risk is the risk that the other side of a transaction defaults before meeting its obligation. In settlement it arises above all in the window between the two legs: whoever delivers or pays first carries it until the other side performs. Escrow narrows the window by having a third party hold the value; delivery versus payment and atomic settlement close it, because no intermediate state remains. Where an intermediary stays in the chain, the risk moves to that intermediary rather than disappearing.
Crypto security
The German Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) allows a security to be issued without a certificate by entering it in a register. If that register is a crypto securities register, the security is a crypto security under section 4(3) eWpG. Under section 16 eWpG such a register is kept on a tamper-proof recording system, which section 4(11) describes as a decentralised network. Under section 2(3) eWpG an electronic security is deemed a thing. For accounting it is therefore a security like one with a certificate, even though it is recorded as a token.
Data Act
Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 has applied since 12 September 2025. It gives the user of a connected product the right to access its data free of charge and to have it shared with third parties. Where the data holder is obliged to do so, it may ask the third party for reasonable compensation, and from a small or medium-sized enterprise at most the cost of making the data available. The regulation also sets requirements for smart contracts that execute an agreement on making data available, including a mechanism to terminate and interrupt them.
Delivery versus payment (DvP)
Delivery versus payment links the transfer of an asset to the payment for it so that either both happen or neither does. Classically a settlement system provides this by holding both legs and releasing them simultaneously. Where the security and the means of payment sit on the same ledger, the same effect can arise within a single transaction. The gain is not speed but the disappearance of the window in which one side has delivered and the other has not yet paid.
Deposit protection
If a bank fails, deposit protection reimburses clients for their deposits up to a statutory maximum. In the EU this is governed by the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (2014/49/EU), and credit institutions pay into these schemes. It covers deposits, according to the EBA also in tokenised form. E-money and e-money tokens are not covered. For a company this is a difference when it compares a balance at its bank with a stablecoin.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)
Technology for decentrally maintained, distributed databases where transactions are synchronized and validated across multiple nodes. Blockchain is a specific form of DLT. Relevant in corporate context for tokenized assets, smart contracts and programmable payment flows.
Electronic Money Token (EMT)
A token regulated under MiCAR that represents e-money and is pegged to a fiat currency (e.g. euro). EMT may in principle only be issued by credit institutions or e-money institutions. Clear rules apply regarding redemption rights, reserves, governance and reporting. Typical example: regulated euro stablecoins.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Integrated enterprise software for managing business processes such as finance, procurement, production, inventory and HR. Modern ERP systems can be connected via APIs to payment providers, stablecoin platforms or DLT infrastructures to automate payment flows and simplify reconciliation.
Escrow
Custodial holding of assets until predefined conditions are met. On‑chain, escrow can be implemented via smart contracts; off‑chain via trustees. The mechanism reduces counterparty risk and allows payments to be tied closely to delivery or performance evidence.
Fair value
IFRS 13 defines fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. For a token this is usually the quoted price in its principal market at that date. The input is easier to obtain than it once was, because prices are available continuously. It also makes earnings market-dependent, and the choice of price, time of day and source belongs in the documentation before the first set of accounts relies on it.
FEMA (India)
Indian foreign‑exchange law governing purpose codes, permitted transaction types and documentation. Cross‑border payments to Indian recipients must be classified and documented correctly to avoid delays or rejections.
Foreign currency translation
A transaction in a foreign currency is recorded at the rate on the transaction date and remeasured at the reporting date, under section 256a of the German Commercial Code at the mid spot rate; IAS 21 follows the same logic with the closing rate. Where payment is made in a foreign-currency stablecoin, two effects coincide: the movement of the currency and the token's deviation from its reference value. Both belong in separate records. Otherwise the accounts show a total whose components nobody can take apart again.
Four-eyes principle
Under the four-eyes principle a company separates creating a transaction from approving it: whoever enters a payment does not release it. With tokens the rule carries more weight than in the banking channel, because an executed transaction cannot be recalled. It is implemented either in the upstream system, in the ERP or at the provider, or in the key procedure itself, for example through multisig. The second route is the more dependable one, because it cannot be bypassed by going around the system.
FX (foreign exchange)
Currency conversion between, for example, EUR and INR. Pricing usually includes a spread over reference rates. Besides explicit fees, the spread is often the largest hidden cost; corporates should always look at the all‑in rate (fee plus spread).
Gas fee (network fee)
Transaction fee in a blockchain network. It depends on network congestion and transaction complexity. For corporates the relevant metric is the all‑in cost: network fee plus provider fees and any FX spreads.
GoBD (German principles for electronic records)
The GoBD are a circular of the German Federal Ministry of Finance on keeping and retaining books and records in electronic form. They require traceability, completeness, accuracy, timely recording and unalterability, together with process documentation describing how the system works. For a payment on a blockchain this means the hash is good evidence but replaces neither the supporting document nor the description of the process that turns an event into a posting.
HSM (hardware security module)
Tamper‑resistant hardware device for secure key generation, storage and signing. In corporate settings it enables high‑security approvals and auditability and is usually combined with role‑ and approval concepts.
Idempotency
A call is idempotent when repeating it yields the same result and triggers no second effect. In payment processing this is not a detail: networks lose responses, services restart, queues deliver twice. The usual approach is a key supplied by the caller and remembered by the recipient for a period; on a second arrival the service replies with the result of the first attempt. Where retries are not planned for, the fault becomes visible only in the duplicate posting.
Impairment
An impairment is the write-down of an asset to its recoverable amount once the carrying amount exceeds it. Under IAS 36, an indication of impairment triggers a test and, where required, a write-down. For a crypto holding the indication is usually obvious, because the price is public and continuously observable. The practical question is therefore less whether than how: which source, which closing price, at what interval, and where the evidence is filed.
Intangible asset
An intangible asset is identifiable, non-monetary and without physical substance. In 2019 the IFRS Interpretations Committee concluded that a cryptocurrency is neither cash nor a financial asset. A holding kept for sale in the ordinary course of business is inventory under IAS 2; in all other cases IAS 38 applies and the holding is an intangible asset. The classification drives measurement, impairment and whether a balance counts as liquidity in covenants.
ISO 20022
Modern financial messaging standard that gradually replaces legacy MT formats and enables richer structured payment data, improving reconciliation and automation, especially in cross‑border processing.
Journal entry
A journal entry assigns a business transaction to two or more accounts and records which is debited and which credited. For a payment to be posted automatically, the path from event to entry must be unambiguous: which general ledger account carries the amount, which the network fee, which the exchange difference. Ambiguity here does not surface during posting but during reconciliation. A dependable mapping is therefore a precondition of automation, not its result.
Key management
Key management is the governed handling of private keys from creation to destruction. HSMs and MPC are means to that end, not the concept itself. The questions that decide it are organisational: who may create a key, who may use it, how many people are required for an approval, what happens when an employee leaves, and how the company reaches its holdings when the responsible person is unavailable. A procedure without a dependable answer to the last question is not a procedure.
KYC (know your customer)
Processes to identify customers and beneficial owners and to screen them against sanctions and PEP lists. Depending on risk and thresholds, regular updates and additional documentation are required. Without sufficient KYC, account opening, limits or on/off‑ramp access may be restricted.
Lower of cost or market
For current assets, section 253 (4) of the German Commercial Code requires the lower of cost and the value attributable at the reporting date. The rule works in one direction only: it forces a write-down but permits no carrying amount above cost. For a crypto holding this produces a deliberate asymmetry in the accounts. Losses appear in the year the price falls; gains appear only in the year of disposal.
Margin obligation
Securing a loan against a fluctuating asset creates a margin obligation: if the price falls, the lender demands additional collateral or liquidates the holding. The risk points the same way as the exposure rather than offsetting it. The call arrives precisely when room for manoeuvre is already scarce. A loan secured on a crypto holding is therefore no substitute for a credit line at the house bank but an instrument with a timing risk of its own.
MiCAR (Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation)
EU regulatory framework for crypto‑assets, including e‑money tokens (EMT) and asset‑referenced tokens (ART). MiCAR defines licensing, reserve requirements, whitepapers, governance, disclosures and supervision. For corporates it provides orientation on which stablecoins are regulated and under what conditions they can be used.
Micropayment
Micropayments are payments of very small amounts, often in the cent or sub-cent range. With bank transfers and cards, fees and processing per payment often make them uneconomical. On a blockchain, each payment incurs a network fee, for example in ether, and each fee is a separate booking. A micropayment only becomes economical when the fee and the booking per payment are clearly smaller than the amount, or when many small amounts are settled together.
MPC (multi‑party computation)
Wallet approach where signing power is split across multiple key shares that jointly sign without ever reconstructing a full key in one place. This reduces single‑point‑of‑failure risk and allows flexible approval policies, but governance and resilience of the shares remain critical.
Multisig
Scheme where M‑of‑N signatures are required to authorise a transaction. Depending on the blockchain, multisig is native or implemented via smart contracts. It is easy to understand but less flexible than MPC; the choice of M/N is important for security and operations.
NEFT / RTGS / IMPS (India)
Indian payment rails: NEFT processes transfers in batches; RTGS provides real‑time gross settlement for larger amounts; IMPS enables near‑real‑time payments, often 24/7, typically for smaller values. Choice depends on amount, urgency and bank connectivity.
Netting
Netting offsets mutual claims and liabilities into a single net position instead of settling each payment in full. Bilateral netting involves two parties, multilateral netting several – within a group, usually through a netting centre that consolidates the balances of all entities. The benefit lies in the reduced number and size of payments actually moved: fewer transaction fees, fewer currency conversions, less reconciliation effort. Because the offsetting is tied to a cut-off date, it traditionally runs in cycles, often at month end, leaving balances unsettled in between.
Nonce
On Ethereum every transaction from an account carries a nonce, a counter that rises by one with each transaction. Only one transaction with a given nonce can be executed per account; this protects against a signed transaction being replayed. A pending transaction can be overwritten with the same nonce. For companies this makes the nonce a safeguard against duplicate payments, provided it is fixed before sending. Because the counter is sequential, a pending transaction holds up all transactions with a higher nonce. For wallets run as smart contracts, the ERC-4337 standard splits the nonce into a key and a sequence that counts separately for each key.
Nostro/Vostro
Correspondent bank accounts that banks hold for each other when they have no direct relationship. Nostro means "our account with you", Vostro "your account with us". They are key building blocks in cross‑border payment chains and influence timing, fees and transparency.
OCBS (on-chain bank statement)
An on-chain bank statement (OCBS) is an account statement for a wallet, generated from the events on a blockchain and modelled on the structure of camt.053: account, balances, entries, details per transaction. The term was coined by Wolfram Menser for the knowledge hub Zukunft des Geldes, where it has appeared since January 2026; it is not a standard. An OCBS needs decisions that a bank makes for a bank statement, such as the cut-off for the day, the number of confirmations before an entry is booked and a code for the token. From the same events and the same decisions it can be regenerated at any time.
On‑ramp / off‑ramp
On‑ramps convert fiat into tokens (for example stablecoins), off‑ramps convert tokens back into fiat. Quality criteria include KYC/AML processes, liquidity, fee structure, local regulation and reliability of payout rails. Corporates need clear receipts, references and proven operational track records.
Open item
An open item is a recorded receivable or payable with no payment yet assigned to it. Clearing is rarely one to one: a single payment may cover several invoices, one invoice may arrive in instalments, and a provider may bundle several incoming amounts into one payout. Automating the match therefore requires a reference that carries these relationships, and a rule for what happens when it is missing.
OUR / SHA / BEN
Fee‑sharing options in cross‑border payments: OUR (sender bears all fees), SHA (shared) and BEN (beneficiary pays). The choice affects the net amount received and sometimes the routing via intermediaries.
Pay-per-use
Pay-per-use is a billing model where only actual usage of a service is paid for – for example machine hours, API calls or data volume. Programmable money enables automated billing of such granular units by linking payments directly to measurable events.
Paymaster (ERC-4337)
Under the Ethereum standard ERC-4337, a paymaster is a smart contract that pays a transaction's network fee instead of the sender. It can sponsor fees for its users or accept payment for them in another token, such as a stablecoin. The prerequisite is a wallet that is itself run as a smart contract. For accounting this removes the ether balance a company would otherwise hold solely to pay fees.
PII (personally identifiable information)
Under Article 4 (1) GDPR, personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. A public blockchain is the worst possible place for it: what is written there stays readable and cannot be deleted, while Article 17 GDPR may require exactly that. The usual approach is separation. The ledger carries a reference such as a hash; the person behind it lives in the company's own system, with roles, encryption and retention periods.
Policy engine
A policy engine is a software component that checks rules and conditions before an action – such as a payment – is executed. It can enforce budget limits, recipient whitelists, time windows and approval logic. In the context of AI agents and programmable money, the policy engine forms the central control layer between intent and execution.
Procedural documentation
In paragraph 151 the GoBD require well-structured procedural documentation for every data processing system that keeps books or records. It must show the content, structure, sequence and results of the procedure fully and coherently. For token payments this includes the decisions from which a statement is produced: day boundary, number of confirmations, rate source, rounding and reconciliation tolerances. If one of them changes, the change must remain traceable with its date; otherwise an earlier statement can no longer be generated from the same events.
Proof of reserves
Evidence that an issuer or service provider holds sufficient reserves backing its obligations. Often implemented as point‑in‑time attestations; without information on liabilities the statement is limited. Corporates should look at audit standard, frequency and independence.
PSP (payment service provider)
A payment service provider processes payments for third parties and is supervised accordingly; in Germany the Payment Services Supervision Act governs the licence and the obligations. In a token context it usually appears in two roles: as the acceptance point that receives amounts and forwards them as book money to the business account, and as the operator of the route between customer and bank. For accounting the key point is that its settlement often bundles several transactions into one payout.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation is the systematic matching of transactions between different systems – for example between bank accounts and ERP, or between on-chain transactions and accounting. The goal is to identify and resolve differences. For stablecoin payments, transaction hashes, reference numbers and timestamps form the basis for automated or semi-automated reconciliation processes.
Reorganization
A reorganization occurs when a network later agrees on a different block from the one first regarded as the latest. Transactions and events from the replaced block then no longer count unless they appear in the new block. Ethereum's interface flags an event withdrawn in this way as "removed". According to the Ethereum documentation, a finalized block can only be reverted if an attacker loses at least a third of all staked ether. For accounting, this means posting only from a defined threshold and treating earlier receipts as provisional.
Reverse charge
Under the reverse charge mechanism the liability for VAT shifts to the recipient of the supply; the invoice is issued without VAT and carries a note to that effect. In Germany this is governed by section 13b of the VAT Act, at European level by Article 196 of the VAT Directive. For cross-border services it is the normal case, and therefore also for fees paid to providers abroad. Whether a transaction falls under it depends on the type and place of supply, not on the means of payment.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is the obligation of a payment or e-money institution to protect the client funds it receives: in a segregated trust account at a bank, in prescribed investments, or through an insurance policy or guarantee. In Germany section 17 of the Payment Services Supervision Act sets out the permitted routes. The question for a company is not whether its provider mentions safeguarding but which route it has chosen and where that can be read. The answer determines what becomes of a balance sitting with the provider in an insolvency.
Self-hosted address
Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 defines a self-hosted address as a distributed ledger address not linked to a crypto-asset service provider or to a comparable entity established outside the Union (Art. 3(20)). If a company runs its wallet itself, the wallet's address is one. For transfers of more than 1,000 euros to or from a self-hosted address, the provider involved must assess whether it is owned or controlled by its customer. Under the EBA guidelines this is done, for example, through a signed message or a specified small amount.
SEPA Instant (SCT Inst)
Real‑time credit transfer scheme in the euro area. Credits are usually executed within seconds; limits and reachability depend on the bank. For treasury it enables rapid account consolidation and smooth on/off‑ramp processes.
Settlement
The final completion of a transaction – the point at which a payment becomes irrevocable and takes effect on the balance sheet. In traditional payment systems, settlement often occurs with a delay (T+1, T+2); in DLT environments, settlement can occur in real-time (T+0) or near real-time. Critical for corporates for liquidity planning and risk management.
Settlement finality
Point at which a payment becomes legally and technically irrevocable. Card payments may still be charged back under certain rules; bank transfers may be recalled depending on status and banks involved. On‑chain transactions are usually final after confirmation; corrections happen only via new offsetting transactions.
Smart contract
A smart contract is a self-executing program on a blockchain that automatically performs transactions or processes once predefined conditions are met. In corporate contexts, smart contracts can encode approval logic, escrow mechanisms or payment rules. Quality depends on code audits, governance and the ability to fix errors.
Stablecoin
Digital tokens designed to track the value of a reference currency (such as EUR or USD). Benefits for corporates include 24/7 availability, fast final settlement and the ability to encode process logic (approvals, escrow, micro‑settlement). Quality depends on issuer, reserve model, regulation and network risk.
Strong customer authentication (SCA)
Strong customer authentication requires at least two independent elements from the categories knowledge, possession and inherence. Under Article 97 of the Payment Services Directive PSD2, it is needed among other cases when the payer accesses its account online or initiates an electronic payment. Exemptions are set out in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389, including payments to a list of trusted beneficiaries (Article 13); creating or amending that list, however, requires strong authentication.
Structured creditor reference (RF)
The structured creditor reference under ISO 11649 is assigned by the invoicing party and quoted by the payer with the transfer. It has 5 to 25 characters and starts with RF and two check digits calculated with modulo 97-10, so a transposed digit is caught at the point of entry. The SEPA rulebook of the European Payments Council recommends it as the preferred convention for payments that refer to a single invoice. A token under EIP-20 has no field for such a reference; the draft ERC-7699 provides one.
Subsequent measurement
Initial recognition determines what an asset enters the books at; subsequent measurement determines what becomes of it at every reporting date afterwards. For crypto holdings the two common routes diverge widely. Measured at cost, a price fall shows up in earnings while a rise appears only on disposal. Measured at fair value, both directions appear and earnings move with the market. Which route applies depends on the reporting framework and on the classification.
Suspense account
Accounting posts to the suspense account those payments it cannot yet assign to a customer, supplier or open item. Every amount on it awaits clarification and is then reposted to the correct account. As long as it sits there, the books show money without a counterparty and possibly receivables that have long been paid. A growing balance is therefore an early sign that the reconciliation rules do not fit the incoming payments.
SWIFT
Global network and standard for secure messaging between financial institutions. SWIFT does not move money itself but transports standardised payment and status messages. With gpi it has improved tracking and transparency of cross‑border payments, while intermediaries remain involved.
SWIFT gpi
Framework by SWIFT to speed up and improve tracking of cross‑border payments in the correspondent‑bank model. It introduces end‑to‑end references, status tracking and more transparency on fees and timing, but does not remove all intermediaries.
T+0 / T+1 / T+2
Short‑hand for settlement dates relative to trade date T: T+0 (same‑day finality), T+1 or T+2 (next or second business day). For CFOs these are key to realistic cash‑flow, discount and risk planning.
T2 (Eurosystem payment system)
T2 is the Eurosystem's real-time gross settlement system. Each payment is booked individually and immediately in central bank money and is final once booked. Participants are banks and certain other financial institutions; a company does not pay in T2 itself but through its bank. For the settlement of securities transactions, T2 is where the cash leg becomes final.
Tokenized assets (RWA)
Tokenized assets represent a right to a value that sits outside the ledger; in common usage they are often called real world assets. In Germany the Electronic Securities Act has allowed bonds, fund units and shares to be entered in a crypto securities register since 2021 instead of being held as a certificate. The order matters: the token is the entry, not the asset. What it is worth depends on who keeps the register and which law the entry rests on.
Tokenized Deposits
A tokenized claim on a bank deposit (balance) at a specific commercial bank. The token is digital proof that a certain amount is held as a deposit and can be converted back into traditional bank money according to the bank's rules. Unlike stablecoins, this is commercial bank money, not e-money.
Transaction hash
The transaction hash is the identifier under which a transaction is recorded on the blockchain. On Ethereum it is 32 bytes, 66 characters in hexadecimal notation. Anyone can use it to look the transaction up in a block explorer, together with block, time and parties. For accounting it is the evidence that links an entry to the event on the blockchain; it does not, however, fit into the reference fields of a camt.053, which allow at most 35 characters.
Travel rule
Requirement for virtual asset service providers to transmit and verify sender and receiver information with transfers. In the EU it is linked to the Transfer of Funds framework. Corporates should clarify with providers which data is required and how it is transmitted securely.
Verification of payee
Since 9 October 2025, the payer's bank in the euro area must check, before approving a credit transfer, whether the payee's name given matches the IBAN. The legal basis is Art. 5c of the SEPA Regulation, inserted by Regulation (EU) 2024/886. For this, the payee's bank checks on request whether the two match, because it knows its customer. If they do not match, the payer is warned that the money could go to someone else. For addresses on a blockchain there is no comparable check; linking an address to its payee remains a matter for the company's own master data.
Wallet
Software or hardware that manages private keys used to sign blockchain transactions. Tokens remain on‑chain; the wallet controls access. One distinguishes self‑custody (company holds keys) and custodial models (regulated provider holds keys). Hot wallets (online) and cold wallets (offline/HSM/hardware) are typically combined in a tiered model. For CFOs, clear roles and approvals, recovery concepts, address whitelists and logging are essential.
Webhook
A webhook is an endpoint in the company's own system to which a provider reports events as they occur. It saves regular polling and shortens the time to posting. In exchange the burden shifts to protection: the message belongs checked against its signature, guarded against replay and processed idempotently. A webhook without those three precautions is an open interface that triggers postings.
Whitelist (address whitelist)
A whitelist is an explicit list of permitted recipients or addresses to which payments may be sent. In the context of stablecoins and AI agents, it limits fraud and misdirection risk by allowing transactions only to pre-verified and approved destinations. Maintaining the whitelist requires clear processes and responsibilities.
WORM (write once, read many)
WORM describes a storage method in which a record cannot be changed or deleted once written. The unalterability that section 147 of the German Fiscal Code and the GoBD require for records subject to retention is thereby enforced technically rather than promised organisationally. For reporting on blockchain payments the distinction matters: the ledger secures the transaction, the WORM archive secures the report the company made from it.
x402
x402 uses the HTTP status code 402 "Payment Required". The server answers a request with this code and states its payment terms; the client repeats the request with a signed payment. A facilitator verifies the payment and executes it on the blockchain, for example in USDC. The protocol does not cover budgets or spending limits. Coinbase contributed x402; since 14 July 2026 it has been held by a foundation under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation.
