Glossary

This glossary defines terms referenced throughout RippleNet documentation.

Account

An accounting relationship between two entities. Has a single balance (an amount), a transaction history, an owner, and a counterparty. Accounts may also have limits or other provisions, to conform to compliance, policy, or other technical requirements.

The following types of accounts exist in RippleNet:

• Personal account
• Institutional account
• Ledger
• Platform account
• Pool account
• Sender segregated account

In the XRP Ledger, an account represents a holder of XRP and a sender of transactions. For more information, see accounts.

Accounting Relationship

See instead: account.

Address

See instead: RippleNet Address.

Amount

A value and a currency, where the value is a number and the currency is a denomination.

In structured payment data, the value and currency are typically defined in separate fields. The amount is only the value.

In the XRP Ledger, amounts may also include an issuer. For more information, see Tokens in the XRPL Dev Portal.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML)

Policies, procedures, and laws put into place by financial institutions to prevent bad actors from misrepresenting illegally obtained funds as legal income.

Application Programming Interface (API)

Application Programming Interface.

The plural is APIs –not API's or apis.

Automated Clearing House (ACH)

In the United States, ACH is the national network for electronic funds transfers. It processes financial transactions for consumers, businesses, and federal, state, and local governments. ACH processes large volumes of credit and debit transactions in batches. Definition adapted from Wikipedia.

Bank Identifier Code (BIC)

Unique identification code defined by the ISO-9362 standard and used by SWIFT. Also known as Business Identifier Code.

Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN)

A country-specific bank account number.

Beneficiary

1. The entity or person that is the ultimate beneficiary of a RippleNet Payment. The beneficiary can be, but is not limited to, the Member itself or a client of the Member.
2. The final receiver of a payment.

Beneficiary Institution

The financial institution that delivers funds to the beneficiary.

Beneficiary Node

The final instance of a RippleNet software product that completes a payment, which it does by either:

• Transferring the funds to the beneficiary's account at the institution running the RippleNet software.
• Transferring the funds to an institution outside of RippleNet from which the beneficiary can collect their funds.

Business Identifier Code (BIC)

See Bank Identifier Code.

Connector Account

An account that mirrors an account the financial institution's core ledger. Typically, the mirrored account is the Ripple-specific nostro or vostro account.

Corridor

The combination of a specific sending and receiving currency (or country). For example, USD (sending currency) and EUR (receiving currency). Corridors can have one or many senders and receivers. See also: Rail.

Counterparty

Either end of an accounting relationship. One end is the owner, the other end is the counterparty, based on perspective. One end of the relationship holds the money; the other end is owed money.

Country Payment Object Library

A compilation of Payment Objects from over 60 countries detailing the information required to pay into the countries covered.

Country Payment Object Profiles

Covers the regulatory framework and all the operational rules for a given country, such as: payment limits, operating hours, confirmation of receipt, etc..

Cryptocurrency

A math-based currency, such as XRP, ETH, or BTC.

See also : fiat currency.

Currency

The assets exchanged by financial institutions. Either fiat (such as, USD, INR, or PHP) or a digital asset (such as, XRP, ETH, or BTC).

Deferred Net Settlement

A net settlement system that periodically settles on a net, or batch, basis according to existing multilateral agreements.

Direct Participant

Direct participants have a direct connection to the FMI. They exchange payment transactions directly with the FMI.

Indirect participants do not have a direct connection to the FMI. They connect to a direct participant that exchanges transactions with the FMI on their behalf. For example, when the FMI receives a credit transfer from indirect participant through the direct participant, the FMI expects the direct participant to pay the money, not the indirect participant. And when the FMI sends a credit transfer to the indirect participant through the direct participant, the FMI expects the direct participant to receive the money, not the indirect participant.

Elected Member

The appointed or elected Member that serves on the RippleNet Committee which occupy one of the six elected members' seats and represent the interests of their respective Regional Council in matters discussed by the RippleNet Committee.

Entity

A single unit of authentication within a ledger (such as an account), plus metadata. Represented by a URI.

Estimate

See instead : indicative quote.

See also : quote.

Exchange Rate

The rate at which one currency can be traded with another currency.

Exchange Transfer

A transfer of funds between different fiat currency accounts on the same ledger.

Faster Payments Service (FPS)

A UK banking initiative intended to reduce the amount of time it takes to credit beneficiaries, especially for low-value payments.

Also known as Immediate Payments.

Fiat Currency

A currency issued and backed by a government. For example, USD, PHP, INR.

See also: cryptocurrency

Financial Institution

A business involved in sending, receiving, or otherwise processing payments. Such businesses include but are not limited to banks and payment providers. Financial institutions are typically highly regulated.

Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI)

A multilateral system among participating institutions, including the operator of the system, used for the purposes of clearing, settling or recording payments, securities, derivatives or other financial transactions.

Final Receiver

See instead: beneficiary.

Firm Quote

A quote that guarantees an FX rate for a proposed payment.

Also referred to as a quote.

See also: indicative quote, estimate.

FX

Foreign exchange: the act of trading an amount of one currency for a (roughly) equivalent amount of another currency.

FX Rate

The amount of counter currency that you can buy with one unit of the base currency.

Gateway

A Stablecoin issuer — a business or entity that connects the XRP Ledger to the outside world, usually by accepting deposits outside of the XRP Ledger and issuing currency in the XRP Ledger. Stablecoin issuers on the XRP Ledger were formerly called "gateways." For more information, see Become a Stablecoin Issuer.

Governance Policy

The document detailing change management structures and policies.

Hash-Based Message Authentication Codes (HMAC)

Hash-based message authentication codes (HMAC) allow financial institutions to verify the integrity of a quote before accepting it. HMACs prevent institutions from altering quotes by using a deterministic algorithm to generate a secret value (that only the institution that created it possesses) for all the fields that it requires to be immutable.

Hop

See instead: transfer.

Indicative Quote

A quote for an estimated FX rate for a proposed payment. Due to slippage, the FX rate may change when the payment is executed.

Also referred to as an estimate.

See also: firm quote.

Indirect Participant

An entity that does not have direct access to the FMI's services, and is typically not directly bound by the rules of the FMI, but whose transactions are cleared, settled, or recorded by the FMI through a direct participant.

An indirect participant has a bilateral agreement with a direct participant.

Institutional Account

An account maintained by an institution. See also: Account.

Intermediary

A party that connects two or more other parties to facilitate a payment.

In RippleNet, these parties are typically RippleNet members.

International Bank Account Number (IBAN)

An internationally agreed-upon system for identifying domestic bank accounts internationally. The IBAN typically includes the BBAN and Routing Code along with country code identifiers.

Integration Module

A software component connects your internal systems and RippleNet. Features include automated orchestration, SWIFT messaging interoperability, and third-party extensions.

ISO 20022

An ISO standard for electronic data interchange between financial institutions. The RippleNet Payment Object Body carries payment instruction details governed by RippleNet payment object standards which use the ISO 20022 pacs.008 message definition as a basis.

Issuance

In the XRP Ledger, any non-XRP currency (including non-currency stores of value). Issuances always have a currency code and a counterparty. For more information, see Tokens in the XRPL Dev Portal.

Know Your Customer (KYC)

The processes an organization puts in place to verify the identity of their customers.

Ledger

The record of balance changes for a given institution or entity for a given currency.

In RippleNet, each financial institution typically maintains a core ledger that is synchronized with the balances tracked by RippleNet.

In RippleNet with On-Demand Liquidity, exchanges may be abstracted as ledgers to the RippleNet layer by internal software components.

The XRP Ledger is a decentralized cryptographic ledger powered by a network of peer-to-peer servers.

In the context of Interledger, a ledger uses a single currency.

Liquidity Corridor

A liquidity connection between two accounts on the same ledger.

Liquidity Provider

Entities that offer to trade currency on RippleNet or the XRP Ledger.

Also referred to as market makers.

Liquidity Relationship

In RippleNet, a technical and financial link between two accounts on two different ledgers.

Master Services Agreement (MSA)

A contract reached between parties, in which the parties agree to most of the terms that will govern future transactions or future agreements. Definition from Wikipedia.

Multi-hop Payment

A payment executed through RippleNet that consists of coordinated transfers executed over multiple ledgers between the originating member and the beneficiary member.

Netting

A risk-mitigation strategy for financial transactions where the values of multiple positions held in different securities or currency are combined. Netting can be used to determine which transacting party ultimately owes funds to the other.

Nostro Account

Your bank's foreign currency account held at a bank in another country. The funds in the Nostro account are held in the foreign country's local currency. This account is typically used for foreign exchange and trade transactions.

Nostro Transfer

A transfer of fiat currency to an account owned one institution but custodied by another institution.

Originator

The entity or person that is the ultimate originator of a RippleNet Payment. The originator can be, but is not limited to, the Member itself or a client of the Member.

Originator Node

The first instance of a RippleNet software product that initiates a new payment.

Originating Institution

1. If the originator is an individual, the institution that processes the payment on behalf of the originator.
2. The initial business entity in the payment chain.

Owner

The owner of an account. Could be either end of an accounting relationship where the other is the counterparty.

Partner

A business that has contractual relationship with a RippleNet customer, where the relationship exists outside of any agreement between Ripple and the customer.

Party

A representation of a human or business that takes part in a transaction. Within a transaction, a party is represented by one or more entities.

Pass-in FX Rate

A FX rate that a sending institution (the first RippleNet Server in the payment path) specifies at the time of requesting a quote.

Path

A technical and liquidity-based connection between two institutions,

Pathfinding

The method for searching for valid paths for payments.

Payment

One or more transfers made between ledgers owned by different institutions. Debits funds in the originator's account at the originating instution and credits the beneficiary's institution's.

The payment object incorporates metadata, such as the originator's identifier, transfer amounts, fees, FX rates, and the domains of each intermediary transfer.

Payment Chain

The complete selected path for a given payment, comprised of one or more transfers.

Payment ID

A unique identifier for each payment. Used to progress and query the payment.

Payment Message

A message sent between RippleNet peers to pay or cause another institution to pay a fixed amount of money to a beneficiary.

Payment Object

A representation of a payment message in a structured data format, such as JSON.

Payment Terms

The fees, expiration dates, and FX rates that apply to the payment, contained in the contract object.

Payment Types

These are the payment types supported by RippleNet.

Book Transfer

The transfer of the legal right of ownership of an asset without physically shifting the asset to the new owner.

For example, a book transfer happens when a bank transfers funds from the account of the originator to the account of the beneficiary when both accounts are held the same bank. By making such transfers, the funds clear quickly and the beneficiary can use the transferred cash almost immediately.

Book transfers are typically executed between two accounts held by the same party. Banks typically use book transfers for funding.

Users : Bank Customers (including Payment Providers, SMEs and Large / Multinational Corporates), Banks

Invoice Payment

Payments made between a buyer and supplier for goods or services. Typically generated by accounting software as part of their accounts payable flow.

Users : SMEs, Multinational Corporations

Payroll Payment

Payments made by an organization to their employees. Typically generated by payroll software. Payroll payments have varied frequencies, but are commonly ones made weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

Users : SMEs, Multinational Corporations

Retail Remittance

A remittance is where funds are sent or transferred to another party usually abroad. Remittances can be used for any type of payment such as an invoice, but it's typically used to pay family members back in a person's home country.

Users : Bank and Payment Provider initiating payments on behalf of their Customers covering Consumers, SMEs, Multinational Corporations

Treasury Transfer

Payments made to fund accounts typically in other Countries so that payments can be made domestically from the account. Values are typically high and frequency could be daily. Often generated from Treasury Management Systems or ERP systems.

Users : Banks, Payment Providers and Large / Multinational Corporations

Peer

In RippleNet, a node that is technically connected to another node on the network through the RippleNet Messaging Protocol (RNMP).

Personal Account

An account maintained by a single, human individual. See also: account.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Information that can be used to uniquely identify an individual, such as name, address, or government identification number.

Platform Account

A platform account represents the real-world account maintained by a financial entity. You can link multiple RippleNet accounts to a platform account to segregate and track funds on RippleNet.

See also: account.

Pool Account

A pool account points to one or more RippleNet accounts using the same currency. See also: account.

Primary Account Number (PAN)

Sixteen-digit identification number typically used by credit or debit cards.

Proxy Address

An easier-to-remember address, often in short or abbreviated form, that typically refers to a bank account. For example, a proxy address could be an email address or mobile cell phone number that a user enters when sending a payment. Commonly used with mobile wallets.

Quote

See instead: firm quote.

See also: indicative quote, estimate.

Rail

A pre-existing, non-RippleNet payout method within a country. For example, Automated Clearing House (ACH) or wire transfers, cash, checks, or card networks. See also: Corridor.

Ranked Members

Financial institutions that sit on the RippleNet Committee that occupy one of the six elected members’ seats selected based on their utility to the network (see Governance Policy for more information).

Real-time Gross Settlement (RTGS)

The process of transferring and settling payments between banks in real-time on an individual order basis. In the RTGS model, when value is transferred from the sending bank it is immediately received and settled at the receiving bank.

Receiver

The RippleNet member that is the final destination of the RippleNet Payment.

See also: beneficiary, receiving member.

Receiving Agent

Deprecated. Sends a payment to the initial receiver on behalf of the receiving member.

Receiving Currency

The currency delivered to the beneficiary.

Receiving Member

The RippleNet member that is the final destination of the RippleNet Payment.

See also: receiver.

Receiving Payment

Deprecated. In earlier versions of RippleNet technology, the payment from the receiving institution to the final receiver. Includes the receiving party and the receiving amount.

Regional Councils

Groups of RippleNet Members organized on the basis of geography or common interest whose job it is to innovate, evolve and strengthen RippleNet.

Ripple Consensus Ledger (RCL)

See instead: XRP Ledger.

RippleNet

The distributed financial technology that connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges, and payment providers to frictionlessly move money globally.

RippleNet Address

Unique identifier of a RippleNet member.

RippleNet Committee

A democratically elected group of institutions and people responsible for the governance of RippleNet Membership documentation.

RippleNet Committee Member

A RippleNet Member that is entitled, under the governance policy, to appoint a RippleNet Committee representative to the RippleNet Committee.

RippleNet Deployment

A specific installation of RippleNet Server, either on-premises or on the RippleNet Platform. May host zero or more RippleNet Tenants.

Ripple Payments UI

The customer web portal service, Ripple Payments UI. The portal provides customers web access to services, including the ability to manage and view their accounts and payments.

RippleNet Management Limited

A private limited company incorporated in the UK with company number 10808090.

RippleNet Member

An entity that has executed, and abides by, the RippleNet Membership Agreement and RippleNet Rulebook.

RippleNet Membership Agreement

The single contract between RippleNet Members binding them to adhere to the RippleNet Rulebook.

RippleNet Messaging Protocol (RNMP)

Messaging layer that governs communication between RippleNet peers.

RippleNet Node

An element on the RippleNet Network as represented by a RippleNet Address, hosted within a RippleNet Tenant within a RippleNet Deployment

• May have multiple accounts/currencies.
• May have multiple peers and liquidity relationships.

RippleNet Payment

1. A message from a Sending Member to an Intermediary or Receiving Member, transmitted through RippleNet technology, instructing the Intermediary or Receiving Member to pay or cause another institution to pay a fixed amount of money to a beneficiary .
2. A cross-border or domestic credit transfer with or without currency conversion using RippleNet or other Ripple products.

RippleNet Payment Object (RPO)

A single view of a RippleNet Payment shared by all transacting members. The RippleNet Payment Object (RPO) enables financial institutions to share payment data with partners using ISO20022-based standards. Created and maintained as part of the network, the RPO aligns to the shared RippleNet payment flow through three distinct sections:

• Header
• Body
• Results

Header

Populated automatically by RippleNet based on the transaction details agreed on between the RippleNet Members and the routing required for the payment.

Body

Automatically synchronized state of the payment and payment instruction details (originator, beneficiary, etc.). Typically, the sending member provides most of these details but any transacting party can contribute to them.

Results

Details of confirmed settlement processing steps on RippleNet.

RippleNet Platform

The software technology platform that Ripple hosts, including a multi-tenant RippleNet Server service, and the customer web portal services, Ripple Payments UI. The platform performs the bi-directional messaging, tracking, and settlement used for payments across RippleNet.

RippleNet Rulebook

The rules that govern how parties will transact together on Ripple software, providing the operational procedures and obligations of Members.

RippleNet Server

The software that runs the RippleNet application service. This software can be run as an on-premises deployment or on the RippleNet Platform.

RippleNet Tenant

A RippleNet Tenant is the collection of all data relevant to a particular customer (or tenant) on a Ripplenet Deployment. A RippleNet Tenant may contain up to one RippleNet Node. A tenant also contains data objects not inherently coupled to the RippleNet Node's RippleNet Address, such as fiat FX rates and fees.

Routing Code

Country-specific unique identifiers of financial institutions for instruments such as checks.

Segregated Account

The collateral account that serves as temporary custodian of assets for the institution sending or receiving RippleNet payments.

A segregated account could be a nostro account that is solely used for RippleNet payments.

Similar terms: suspense account, holding account, operator account

Sender Segregated Account (SSA)

The collateral account that serves as temporary custodian of assets for the institution sending RippleNet payments. See also: Account.

Sender

See instead: sending member

See also: originator.

Sending Agent

Deprecated. Receives and initiates a payment on behalf of the originator.

Sending Currency

The currency provided by the originator.

Sending Institution

The financial institution sending a payment on behalf of the originator.

Sending Member

The RippleNet member that is originating the RippleNet Payment.

See also: originator.

Sending Payment

The transfer of funds from the originator to the sending agent. In most cases, this is a book transfer from a customer's account to a financial institution's suspense account. Includes the sending party and the sending amount.

Settlement Payment

Atomic payment that transfers funds from the sending institution to the receiving institution over RippleNet, possibly through one more intermediary institutions.

Slab Fee

A bulk fee set by a financial institution. For example, a bank may charge a 2 USD fee for payments from 100 to 200 USD and a 3 USD fee for payments from 201 to 300 USD.

Slab Rate

A bulk FX rate set by the liquidity provider that allows financial institutions to offer amount-based rates.

Slippage

Possible rate changes in an FX orderbook between the time an estimate is created and a payment is executed that could affect sent or delivered amounts.

See also: estimate, quote.

Smart Liquidation service (SLS)

A RippleNet service that automatically splits large payments into smaller tranches over a specified time period. The payment size determines whether a liquidation gets routed through the Smart Liquidation service or the traditional one-to-one liquidation.

SME

1. Subject Matter Expert : An authority on a specific topic or domain.
2. Small and medium-sized enterprises : Businesses whose personnel numbers fall below certain limits. Definition from Wikipedia .

State

The state of a payment in the database at the moment it is queried.

Statement of Work (SOW)

A document routinely employed in the field of project management. It defines project-specific activities, deliverables and timelines for a vendor providing services to the client. The SOW typically also includes detailed requirements and pricing, with standard regulatory and governance terms and conditions. It is often an important accompaniment to a master service agreement (MSA) or request for proposal (RFP). Definition from Wikipedia.

Sub-Payment

Deprecated. In earlier versions of RippleNet technology, one of the transfers involved in an end-to-end payment. In most cases, each payment has three sub-payments that represent the transfer of funds at each stage of the payment: sending payment, settlement payment, and receiving payment.

Transactional Account

Accounts that reflect the overall currency position on the RippleNet ledger for the member operating the RippleNet Node.

Transactional accounts are not related to the member's partner.

See also: segregated account.

Transfer

A movement of funds from one account to another. This movement can happen on one or more ledgers. A transfer between ledgers owned by different institutions comprise one or more portions of a payment. Each transfer between institutions becomes a link in the overall payment chain

Throughput

The number of payments that a product can process in a given time period.

URI

A unique resource identifier that signifies an entity or account. For example, acct:alice@bank.com.

Validator

The RippleNet component responsible for cryptographically verifying that the crypto transaction is valid and the payment fulfilled.

Vostro Account

A foreign bank's account held at your bank, funded in local currency. Your bank functions as the correspondent bank and manages the funds on behalf of the foreign bank. Vostro accounts enable domestic banks to fulfill their clients' international banking needs in countries where they don't have a physical presence.

Wallet Receive

A variation of On-Demand Liquidity in which the beneficiary institution receives the payment in XRP instead of fiat currency.

Wallet Send

A variation of On-Demand Liquidity in which the sending institution originates a payment in XRP instead of fiat currency.

Wallet-to-Wallet

A variation of On-Demand Liquidity in which XRP is transferred directly from the sending institution's wallet to the beneficiary institution's wallet. The receiver then transfers the funds to a beneficiary in the local fiat currency.

Work Order

A work order is usually a task or a job for a customer, that can be scheduled or assigned to someone. Such an order may be from a customer request or created internally within the organization. Work orders may also be created as follow ups to Inspections or Audits. A work order may be for products or services. Definition from Wikipedia.

XRP

The native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger. All accounts in the XRP Ledger can send XRP among one another and must hold a minimum amount of XRP as a reserve. XRP can be sent directly from any XRP Ledger address to any other, without needing a gateway or liquidity provider. This helps make XRP a convenient bridge currency.

XRP Ledger

A decentralized cryptographic ledger powered by a network of peer-to-peer servers. The XRP Ledger is the home of XRP , a digital asset designed to bridge the many different currencies in use worldwide. Ripple stewards the development of the XRP Ledger, and advances XRP as a key contribution to the Internet of Value : a world in which money moves the way information does today.