Payments Sector Business Information Model

The Payments Sector Business Information Model maps the data entities behind card, account, and wallet-based payment flows — from instrument and party master data through authorization, clearing, and settlement. Entities are organized into foundational, transactional, and informational layers, with the relationships between them laid out, in an editable Word document.

A "payment" isn't one event — it's a chain of distinct entities. Authorization, capture, clearing, and settlement happen at different times, sometimes days apart, involve different counterparties (issuer, network, acquirer), and settlement is typically batched and netted across many transactions rather than tied one-to-one with the original authorization. The payment instrument entity has to separate the token from the account behind it, since one account can generate many device- and merchant-specific tokens, each with its own lifecycle and expiration. Disputes complicate the picture further: a chargeback can cover a partial amount, span multiple transactions on a split shipment, and trigger its own representment and arbitration sub-process — none of which fits neatly under the original transaction record. A generic order/payment template has no natural place for any of these relationships.

What's Included

• Foundational entities — payment instruments, accounts, parties (issuer, acquirer, merchant, network), tokens
• Transactional entities — authorization, clearing, settlement, chargebacks and disputes, payouts
• Informational entities — reconciliation, fraud/risk scoring, settlement and dispute reporting
• Entity relationships across the model, provided as an editable Word document

Where Teams Apply It

• Reference for payment platform and ledger data architecture
• Baseline for instrument, account, and party master data management
• Supports integration planning across authorization, settlement, and reconciliation systems
• Starting point for modeling dispute and chargeback workflows

Intended Audience

Aimed at data architects, business architects, and IT leaders at issuers, acquirers, processors, and payment platforms designing or integrating payment systems.