# Key Concepts

A reference for terminology used throughout the Monato Direct Debit documentation.

## Domiciliación Bancaria

The Mexican banking standard for direct debit. Regulated by Banxico and the CNBV, it allows merchants to pull payments directly from a customer's bank account or debit card, provided the customer has authorised the collection via a mandate. Payers retain the right to dispute a charge within 90 days.

## Mandate

An authorisation granted by a customer to a merchant permitting recurring or one-off direct debit collections. The merchant is responsible for obtaining and retaining the mandate — Monato does not manage mandates directly. The mandate is the legal basis for every charge submitted to the platform.

## CLABE

*Clave Bancaria Estandarizada* — an 18-digit Mexican bank account identifier used to route direct debit transfers. The first three digits identify the bank, and the following digits identify the branch and account. CLABE is one of the two instrument types supported by the platform.

## Instrument

A payment instrument is a stored representation of a customer's payment method — either a CLABE or a debit card. Instruments can be created and stored as objects via the API (tokenised), or provided inline with each charge request without storing them. Stored instrument objects allow filtering and reporting by instrument.

## Customer

A customer object stores identifying information about a payer — their name, RFC or CURP document number, email, and phone number. Like instruments, customers can be stored as objects or provided inline per charge. Stored customer objects allow charges to be grouped and filtered by customer.

## RFC / CURP

The two supported Mexican customer identification document types:

- **RFC** (*Registro Federal de Contribuyentes*) — the Mexican tax ID issued to individuals and businesses by the SAT. Alphanumeric, typically 12–13 characters.
- **CURP** (*Clave Única de Registro de Población*) — the national population registry key issued to individuals. 18 alphanumeric characters.


## Charge

A single direct debit collection request submitted to the platform. A charge references an amount, a currency (MXN), an instrument, a customer, and an optional merchant reference. Charges move through a defined set of [statuses](/products/directdebit/content/reference/charge-statuses) from creation through to final result.

## Penny Validation

An automatic ownership verification process for new instruments. When a new instrument is first used, the platform initiates a small debit to confirm the account belongs to the declared customer. This happens transparently — the merchant does not need to take any action. A `instrument_verification_result` webhook event is sent when the validation completes. See [Instruments guide](/products/directdebit/content/guides/api/instruments) for details.

## Batch File

A CSV file containing up to 50,000 charge requests, submitted to the platform via SFTP. The platform processes the file and returns pre-validation and response files in the same SFTP directory. See [Bulk Collections](/products/directdebit/content/guides/sftp).

## Settlement

The transfer of collected funds from the banking network to the merchant. Settlement timing depends on when charges are submitted relative to the [daily cutoff](/products/directdebit/content/reference/times-and-settlements).

## Chargeback

A reversal of a confirmed charge initiated by the customer through their issuing bank. Under Mexican banking regulations, customers may request a chargeback up to 90 days after the original debit. The charged-back amount is deducted from the merchant's outstanding balance. See [Chargebacks](/products/directdebit/content/chargebacks).

## Webhook

An HTTP callback sent by the platform to a merchant-configured endpoint when a platform event occurs — such as a charge result or a chargeback. See [Webhooks](/products/directdebit/content/guides/api/webhooks).