American Banking Association

An alphanumeric text string uniquely assigned to a client. Use your application and client credentials to create a token and pass it to the server to get permission to use the API. See authentication, authorization, bearer token, entitlement.

The Account Validation API confirms the account data matches to the account owner.

Automated Clearing House

The ACH Inquiry API shows the status of a payment after it is collected by the ACH processor. To check on the status of a transaction before it is collected, use the status inquiry call in the ACH Origination API.

The central clearing facility managed by the Federal Reserve Bank.

The ACH Origination API creates a payment and submits it to a clearing house.

The core processing system of the ACH Origination API that takes the incoming transactions from the originating financial institution, which are then sorted, batched, and verified.

Data records that have additional information about the payment transaction like remittance information.

Application Programming Interface, A documented interface between two systems to exchange information in a commonly agreed upon format.

An authorized user of the API developer portal that has provisioned credentials (API keys) and permission to use our APIs.

Application and client credentials required to access and use our APIs. See application credentials, client credentials, keys.

A unique identification and password required to access the APIs. Application credentials (consumer key and consumer secret) are provided during onboarding.

Part of the entitlement process to verify your identity with KeyBank client credentials. See client credentials, entitlement, keys.

Part of the entitlement process to permit use of the APIs with application credentials. See application credentials, entitlement, keys.

Banking as a Service

Bank Administration Institute

A software method of running a series of jobs to collect and group similar queries or data sets, typically set to run automatically to a schedule. This is an effective process for running high-volume, repetitive jobs. See consolidation.

A unique code generated with your application and client credentials that permits use of the APIs. Use the unique code in the Authorization header when you call the API over a secure TLS connection. See access token, authentication, authorization.

Bank Identification Code

Bank Identification Number

Corporate Credit or Debit

Controlled Disbursement Account

An issued and signed digital certificate that permits the connection between servers and their resources (like applications). Certificates provide a digital signature and encrypted system information to support secure communication between servers, app to server, and human to app. You must exchange certificates with KeyBank before using our APIs.

The Check Image Retrieval API collects images of every check deposited and cleared to create a searchable catalog of past transactions.

Customer Identification Number

Consumer Identification Unit

Customer Identification Exchange

The primary system for sending batches of electronic credit and debit transfers between banks and credit unions.

The application or site that uses KeyBank APIs. A client is controlled by verified, authenticated users who have onboarded with KeyBank. See API consumer.

A unique identification and password required to verify the API consumer's identity. Client credentials (client ID and client secret) are provided during onboarding.

The program instructions for the API that shows how the API request and response are in JSON format.

Provides small examples of code in JSON data format.

The action of grouping transactions and related data by a group a data sets. Consolidation can involve conversion from one file format to another.

Check Processing Control System

To push funds to other accounts.

Corporate Trade Exchange

The client URL (cURL) is a command line tool that sends data between two systems like web systems or application to server.

Demand Deposit Account

To pull funds from an account.

An item that is no longer relevant or needed. Any deprecated fields or schemas in the API specifications are removed.

A user who has successfully created an account on the developer portal and can see authenticated content. See API consumer.

Designated Financial Institution is a financial institution like a bank or credit union, that has been officially assigned to receive and manage specific funds for a particular purpose. Designation implies that the institution has been vetted to handle such transaction securely and appropriately. 

A domain is a group of computers and devices using the same group of resources. A domain name identified the IP address or web URL associated with those resources and can be used to authenticate use and access permissions.

Electronic Funds Transfer

A KeyBank line of business dedicated to taking traditional financial products and inserting them into non-financial software platforms to improve distribution, accessibility, and online data processing.

The digital location where the API receives requests and sends out responses. Each endpoint is a URL that gives the location of a resource on the API server.

Entitlements authenticate your identity and contain the authorization rules for the APIs you need to access. Part of the account entitlements are the API keys.

A data type set with a limited set of possible values and the value is constant.

A virtual space to test or publish a program. The environment can be configured by resources like the server or a cloud platform.

Extract, Transform, and Load

A problem during the execution of a program that affects its ability to function correctly.

Financial Alerts and Case Tracking System

The EFT system operated by the twelve US Federal Reserve Banks, commonly used by banks, credit union, and federal agencies for same-day wire fund transfers.

Financial Institution

Short for financial technology, fintech refers to any entity that uses technology to interact with financial services or automate commands in the financial industry.

Financial National Services

Federal Reserve Bank

Foreign Exchange

Connect to an API to make sure that the application endpoint can receive the request and confirm there are no interruptions to service.

A core banking system that provides real-time access to bank customer relationships to verify accounts and settle funds.

International Automated clearing house Transaction

The method for REST APIS with HTTP/S to check if a single call used multiple times has the same result.

Another term for real-time payments. See RTP.

The Intraday Reporting API presents memo transactions like deposit activity, CDA funding requirements, incoming CDA checks, incoming ACH debits and credits, incoming wires, and ACH and wire transactions for a single day in one report.

Key Business Online

API developer portal summary of common functions, request/response parameters, and messaging for multiple API products offered at KeyBank.

A string of letters and numbers that acts as a unique identifier to authenticate API calls. To learn more, see API security. There are two types of keys needed to access the API: consumer keys and client keys. Consumer keys to authenticate user access and verification the API consumer identity. Client keys to permit use and access of subscribed API products and services. API keys can also be used to track user engagement with the APIs like number of requests made and the type of requests.

A service provided by banks to streamline deposits for receiving financial institutions.

Mutual Transport Layer Security; A two-way authentication mechanism that uses digital certificates signed using the PKI framework.

National Automated Clearing House Association; The governing body that oversees the ACH network.

Non-Human Identification

Notification of Change

National Shared Database Resource

Short for Open Authorization, OAuth 2.0 is an open standard for token-based permission to access APIs.

Origination Depository Financial Institution; The financial institution of the originator.

Office of Foreign Asset Control

Online Banking

Online Delivery System

The process of becoming a KeyBank API consumer.

A logical organization of API product code adhering to OpenAPI standards and presented in a readable file format. This language-agnostic description enables both developers and applications to discover and fully understand an APIs capabilities and parameters.

The company or business that initiates a credit (payment) transaction to the receiver (payee). Before a transaction can be sent, the originator has authorized the receiver to credit or debit their account.

Payment Assigned Reference; The PAR number is a unique identifier assigned by the ACH Product Processor. This is used to identify the transaction without exposing any sensitive consumer identification information.

A sequence of events to send a payment from the originator (debit party) to the receiver (credit party).

Payment Card Industry

Public Key Infrastructure

Prearranged Payments and Deposits

This environment is ideal for fine-tuning before you go live. Use integration testing to ensure your API is functioning properly and end-to-end testing to validate your build.

The Previous Day Reporting API presents posted transactions like deposit activity, paid checks, incoming ACH debits and credits, incoming wires, and ACH and wire transactions together in one report.

The live environment where any user with web access to the application or tool can view and interact with the content/services. The production environment returns live responses with real data and real money.

The number of API calls allowed in a given time period. A user may be throttled when exceeding that limit.

Receiving Depository Financial Institution is the financial institution of the receiver. The ACH operator processes the transactions and sends the funds to the financial institution before the money is posted to the receiver's account.

The individual or company that receives the funds. Before a transaction can be received, the receiver has authorized the originator to credit or debit their account.

Information returned by an API. A resource typically has multiple endpoints and methods to access the information.

REpresentational State Transfer; Sometimes referred to RESTful APIs, REST APIs is an architectural style with design principles that provide a flexible, lightweight way to integrate applications. For more information on how we've used REST APIs, read our OpenAPI spec.

When the banking application cannot process the payment, mainly due to insufficient funds, the payment is sent back to the originator.

To pull back a payment that originated erroneously. When you reverse a transaction, a debit is created on the receiver's account.

Real-Time Payment

The RTP Send Payment API speeds up the payment process for faster, more efficient transactions. See instant payments.

Reusable containers of parameters that can be reference in an API to complete an action or part of a set of actions.

A three-letter code describing how an ACH transaction was authorized by the recipient.

A banking process that indicates when funds have successfully and completely transferred from ODFI to RDFI.

Secure File Transfer Protocol

Dev Portal users and API consumers can demo KeyBank’s APIs by imitating a real API server and providing realistic static mock API responses to requests. In turn, the mock simulates the data the API would return, matching schema with data types, objects, and arrays. This allows for testing connectivity prior to development.

A user visiting the developer portal with access to public content only. See unauthenticated user.

The Stop Payment API halts the processing for check payments quickly before it is cashed.

Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

Transport Layer Security

Terms of Service

Transactions Per Second

A public site visitor with view access to published content available online. This user does not have an account with KeyBank and has not started the onboarding process.

Stop an ACH payment transaction before it is collected by the ACH processor. The time window to stop an ACH payment is configurable.

Universally Unique Identifier

An event-driven notification method for one-way communication between web systems in real-time. After registration, notifications and alerts can be sent automatically upon a specific event like a payment collected or posted.

An electronic way to transfer money.

The Wire Inquiry API tracks the progress of a wire payment and reports its status.

The Wire Origination API initiates wire payments and reports its status.

YAML Ain't a Markup Language; A file type that converts the API code in JSON format to a user-friendly data serialization language. YAML is easier way to read and review the API specifications.