Glossary

Plain-language definitions for the payment-verification and fintech terms you'll encounter while integrating ShegerPay. If a term you need isn't here, email [email protected] and we'll add it.

Non-custodial payment

A payment architecture where the infrastructure provider never holds customer funds. Money moves directly between the payer's bank or wallet and the merchant's bank or wallet on a regulated rail. The non-custodial provider only verifies that the transaction happened. ShegerPay, Plaid, and BVNK all operate this way. The opposite — custodial — is when the provider takes possession of funds and re-disburses them, which requires a money-transmitter license.

Payment verification

The act of programmatically confirming that a payment claimed by a customer has actually settled on the underlying rail. Verification parses provider-specific identifiers — an FT number from CBE, a Telebirr reference, a BOA QR slip, or an on-chain transaction hash — and returns a structured response: status, amount, timestamp, and counterparty. Verification is read-only and does not move money.

Settlement rail

The regulated underlying network that actually moves money between bank or wallet accounts. In Ethiopia these include CBE, Awash, Dashen, BOA, Hibret, Telebirr, M-Pesa, and Cooperative Bank of Oromia. Globally, settlement rails include SWIFT, SEPA, ACH, card networks, and public blockchains. ShegerPay sits on top of settlement rails, never inside them.

Money transmitter license

A regulatory license required to take custody of customer funds for the purpose of transmitting them to a third party. In Ethiopia, this falls under National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) directives; in the US it's a state-by-state regime. Because ShegerPay never takes custody of funds, ShegerPay merchants integrating verification do not need a money-transmitter license. Consult local counsel for your specific structure.

FT number (CBE)

The Financial Transaction reference assigned by Commercial Bank of Ethiopia to every completed transfer. The FT number appears in SMS confirmations, mobile banking, and printed receipts. ShegerPay parses the FT number to confirm the transaction exists, the amount, the timestamp, and the recipient — typically in under two seconds.

Telebirr reference

The unique transaction reference Telebirr assigns to every mobile-money transfer. Customers see it in their Telebirr app and SMS receipt. ShegerPay's Telebirr verification endpoint accepts the reference, validates it against Telebirr's records, and returns confirmation in real time.

BOA QR slip

The QR-encoded payment receipt produced by Bank of Abyssinia after a successful transfer or deposit. Customers can show the slip directly to a merchant or upload an image. ShegerPay's OCR pipeline reads the QR code, extracts amount, transaction ID, and timestamp, and confirms the payment automatically.

Webhook signature (HMAC-SHA256)

A cryptographic signature attached to every webhook delivery so the receiver can verify the payload came from ShegerPay and was not tampered with in transit. ShegerPay uses HMAC-SHA256 keyed with your endpoint secret, plus a timestamp to prevent replay. Always verify webhook signatures before trusting a payload — see the security page for code examples.

Payment orchestration

A pattern where a single integration routes payments across multiple underlying providers based on rules — cost, success rate, customer location, currency. ShegerPay is a verification orchestrator: one API confirms payments across 20+ Ethiopian and international rails, so merchants don't write provider-specific code for each.

Custodial vs non-custodial

The single most important distinction in payments infrastructure. Custodial providers take possession of funds; they need licenses, reserve capital, and full KYC/AML programs. Non-custodial providers only verify or route information; they don't touch money and have a much lighter regulatory footprint. ShegerPay is strictly non-custodial.

T+0 / T+1 / T+3 settlement

Industry shorthand for how long after the transaction date funds are actually available. T+0 means same-day; T+1 means next business day; T+3 is three business days. ShegerPay verification is real-time (T+0 visibility) but actual settlement timing is controlled by the underlying rail.

KYC (Know Your Customer)

The regulated process of verifying a customer's identity before allowing them to transact. In Ethiopia, banks and mobile-money operators perform KYC on every account holder. Because ShegerPay merchants pay regulated wallets that have already KYC'd their account holders, the merchant typically does not need to run a separate KYC process for receiving payments.

AML (Anti-Money Laundering)

Regulations and procedures designed to prevent payment systems from being used to disguise the proceeds of crime. AML obligations sit primarily with custodial providers (banks, mobile money). Non-custodial verification platforms like ShegerPay support AML by providing immutable audit trails and exportable transaction logs.

PCI-DSS

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of controls for any system that stores, processes, or transmits card numbers. ShegerPay is not in the cardholder data flow (we verify bank, mobile-money, and crypto payments, not card numbers), so we are out of PCI-DSS scope as a processor — but we still follow PCI-aligned operational controls.

Mobile money

A payment system where the value is stored against a mobile phone number rather than a bank account. In Ethiopia the dominant mobile-money providers are Telebirr (Ethio Telecom) and M-Pesa (Safaricom Ethiopia). ShegerPay verifies transactions on both rails in under two seconds.

Stablecoin

A cryptocurrency designed to hold a stable value, typically pegged 1:1 to a fiat currency like USD. The most common is USDT (Tether), which ShegerPay supports on TRC20, ERC20, and BSC networks. Stablecoins let Ethiopian merchants accept cross-border payments with USD-pegged settlement in under 30 seconds.

On-chain verification

Confirming a cryptocurrency payment by querying the public blockchain directly for the transaction hash. ShegerPay's on-chain verifier checks confirmations, validates the recipient address, confirms the amount and token contract, and returns a structured response — typically within 30 seconds of broadcast.

Idempotency key

A unique client-generated string sent with a write API request so that retrying the same request never causes a duplicate action. ShegerPay supports idempotency keys on all verification and payment-link endpoints. Always use them for retried requests to avoid double-charging or double-creating.

OCR receipt verification

Optical Character Recognition applied to a photograph of a payment receipt. The customer uploads a screenshot of their CBE app, Telebirr receipt, or BOA QR slip; ShegerPay's OCR pipeline extracts the transaction reference, amount, and timestamp, then verifies the underlying transaction. The endpoint is POST /api/v1/verify-image.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) for payments

An open protocol from Anthropic that lets AI assistants (Claude, Cursor, Cline) call structured tools. ShegerPay publishes an MCP server so AI coding agents can verify payments, create payment links, and read transaction logs directly inside the developer's editor — no manual API wiring required. Registered on modelcontextprotocol.io.