Cards
Merchant vault vs network token
Two tokenisation models: PSP vaults store PAN cryptographically for one merchant; network tokens are scheme-issued, portable, and auto-updated by issuers.
Related terms
Tokenisation
Replacing sensitive card data with a non-sensitive surrogate value that can be stored and reused without PCI scope.
Network token
A scheme-issued token that replaces the PAN end-to-end and is automatically updated when the underlying card is reissued.
Card vault
A PCI-DSS-compliant store of tokenised card credentials that lets a merchant charge a card again without holding the PAN.
Related guides.
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