Soft descriptors formatting rules

Soft descriptors are the descriptions that appear on a cardholder or account holder's statement. They are truncated at 22-40 characters (depending on the issuing bank) and should reasonably identify the transaction to the account owner. TabaPay can hardcode this field for you, however some customers will need to dynamically populate and pass it through themselves in the Soft Descriptor field to meet network requirements. The table below shares the minimum requirements for statement descriptors.

To meet these requirements you may have to certify to pass the descriptor in dynamically. See our Soft Descriptors page for more details on formatting and passing through the soft descriptor

Use Case	Statement Descriptor Format	Example
Person-to-Person	P2P ProviderCounterparty Dynamically passed in Soft Descriptor*	Bilbo Baggins sends money to Frodo Baggins using Middle Earth's remittance platform: Sender, Bilbo, sees MEFrodo Baggins Recipient, Frodo, sees MEBilbo Baggins
Account-to-Account (excluding brokerages)	BaaS ProviderAccount Owner Dynamically passed in Soft Descriptor*	Frodo Baggins loads his One Ring account held at Shire Bank: Sender, Frodo, sees OneRingFrodo Baggins Frodo Baggins needs to offload his One Ring account to pay Recipient, Frodo, sees OneRingFrodo Baggins
Employer Driven Earned Wage Access Provider	Provider NameMerchantA Dynamically passed in Soft Descriptor*	Strider needs to ask his employer, the Grey Company, for an advance to pay the innkeeper for his drinks, using Prancing Pony payments Recipient, Strider, sees Prancing PonyGrey Company
Direct to Consumer Early Wage Access Provider	Provider Name	Strider, too embarrassed to ask his employer, again uses Isildur Heirs Advance provider to settle his debts with the innkeeper (before he was reformed by his valient journey) Recipient, Strider, sees Isildur Advance*
Corporate Funded Disbursements	Company Name	The Council of Elrond is sending money to Gimli to fight the Black Riders Recipient, Gimli, sees Council of Elrond*
Marketplace company	Marketplace Company Name	Legolas sold 100 arrows on Etsy merchant and is receiving settlement for goods sold: Recipient, Legolas, sees Etsy*
Business-to-Business	B2B Provider*Supplier Name	The Green Dragon Inn wants to pay Barliman’s Best Brewery, a supplier, for a shipment of hobbit beer using Bree-zy Payments: Sender, The Green Dragon, sees BreezyBarliman's Best

Lenders

Repayment from credit cards may not be supported
Avoid charging cardholders processing fees (surcharges on debit are prohibited). Similarly, a third-party processor or bill service provider acting as a vendor to the merchant should not charge cardholders any fees)
Limit retries of debiting cardholders with failed or NSF response code (Visa applies fines to excessive retries)
Loans must not be Payday or Title Loans.
Lenders must only engage in lawful lending activity in the applicable jurisdiction(s)
Lenders should ollow responsible lending best practices such as transparency (i.e. clear loan pricing, non-deceptive marketing and communications, and adequate disclosures); responsible products that consider borrower’s repayment ability, effective APR rate, and fair underwriting factors; non-discrimination in lending practices; non-abusive collection practices
Licensing information should be clearly displayed to users

Money Remittance Providers

State licenses should be clearly displayed to users

Banking as a Service Providers

Partnering financial institutions and FDIC disclosures must be clearly presented to users. BaaS providers cannot market themselves as a bank.