A payment confirmation is a notice that a payment has reached a particular stage, such as being accepted by the bank, sent, settled or credited to the payee. Confirmations take many forms. A shopper sees one on the checkout screen and in an email after a card payment is approved; a bank customer sees a confirmation screen with a reference after sending a transfer; and banks exchange structured status messages such as pacs.002 or report to corporate clients with pain.002. Instant payment schemes give the payer's bank a positive or negative confirmation within seconds. What a confirmation proves depends on its stage: a card approval shows that the issuer has authorised the payment, not that funds have settled, while confirmation of credit shows that the payee has received the money. A confirmation is related to a payment receipt, which records the completed transaction, and to payment completion.