Pending status is the payment status shown when a payment has been initiated or approved but has not yet been completed. The instruction exists and is being processed, but the money has not finally moved, and the payment may still succeed, fail, change in amount or be cancelled.
On a card account, a pending transaction is one the issuer has authorized but the merchant has not yet cleared. The amount is set aside by an authorization hold, lowering the available balance, and is replaced by a posted entry a day or more later, or dropped if the merchant never completes the sale. For bank transfers, direct debits and payouts, pending means the payment has been submitted to a rail that has not yet confirmed the result. Wallets show such sums as a pending wallet balance. A pending payment ends in settled status or failed status.