New Card Brand Updates And How They Affect Your Business

The major card brands, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover, recently issued yet another notice of updates and changes to their rules and pricing structure. Generally, the card brands issue updates on their fees, pricing, and rules twice a year in April and October. But they also issue notices of smaller updates and changes throughout the year. And sometimes, these interim changes can affect your merchant account to accept payments greatly.

Last year, in 2021, the card brands announced some of the most sweeping updates to their programs and interchange rate and fee structures in a decade. Many of these changes would increase costs for merchants, especially merchants accepting card-not-present eCommerce transactions. 

However, because of the challenges many merchants were facing due the Covid-19 pandemic, the card brands chose to delay the changes until another year. 

That means that most of those card brand updates have already gone into effect as of April 2022. Some of the changes affect processes within and during transactions. A few of the changes will have financial impacts for merchant's as they could increase credit card processing fees.

One of the most interesting new updates involves an integration between Visa and Google Chrome. Visa will automatically convert payment card information into a dynamically generated token whenever a card-not-present transaction is made with the Chrome browser, including mobile. 

We posted an in-depth explanation of the April 2022 Interchange updates in this article. Now, with this newest notice of card brands updates and changes, we'd like to once again keep our clients in the loop. The following information summarizes the newest changes and the date that they will go into effect. These excerpts come directly from the Visa Notice.

New Card Brand Updates:

April 2022 Updates:

Update to Effective Date for American Express OptBlue Transaction and Assessment Fees

Update: American Express has changed the start date of the previously announced implementation of the Acquirer Transaction Fee (see Table 1) to July 15, 2022. 

Any fees collected between April 22 and July 15 will be credited back to merchants by the correction process and the correction date will be communicated at a later date.

Table 1—American Express OptBlue Acquirer Transaction Fee

1 Applied on all American Express non-debit card charges (credit and prepaid), not credits/refunds, submitted under the Program for all industries in the American Express Program Pricing Signing Guidelines1

Table 2—American Express OptBlue Assessment Fee

2 Applied on all American Express Charges, not credits/refunds, submitted under the Program for all industries in the American Express Program Pricing Signing Guidelines

MasterCard Installment Program Begins

The Mastercard Installments Program went into effect in April 2022. This program allows issuer approved cardholders to purchase large ticket items and set up an installment payment schedule with the issuer. The merchant will receive payment for the entire transaction amount at the time of purchase, as they do with other Mastercard transactions. 

Enrollment: Mastercard will automatically enroll merchants in the Mastercard Installments Program.

Rates and Fees: From April to July 17, 2022, Mastercard standard interchange categories and rates will apply to Mastercard Installments Program transactions (see Table 1).

Effective July 17, 2022, new Mastercard Installments Program interchange rates and Program fees will apply based on merchant category codes (see Table 2 and Table 3).

Table 1–Mastercard Standard Interchange Categories and Rates* (Effective April to July 17, 2022)

* Apply to Mastercard Installments Program transactions

Table 2—Mastercard Installments Program Interchange Rates (Effective July 17, 2022)

Table 3—Mastercard Installments Program Fees (Effective July 17, 2022)

Table 4—Mastercard Response Code Mapping (Effective July 17, 2022)

Visa updates Mandate on Automated Fuel Dispenser (AFD) Transactions

While the use of Address Verification Service (AVS) on all AFD transactions is highly encouraged to mitigate fraud, Visa is no longer requiring the AVS zip code information to be included in all AFD authorization messages in areas identified as high-fraud geographies.

June 2022 - Visa Token Service and Web Browser AutoFill

Visa is introducing their Visa Token Service (VTS) to web browsers for improved security and consumer experience on card not present (CNP) transactions. 

Merchants could begin seeing tokenized transactions within Google Chrome as early as June 21, 2022, when Visa begins limited testing with the Google Chrome browser. Visa and Google Chrome plan to gradually introduce the VTS functionality beginning August 2022 for CNP transactions made in the Google Chrome browser, including mobile devices.

Prior to this integration, cardholders could choose to have their account and expiration date stored for use on a merchant checkout page. The integration between Visa and Google Chrome will allow purchases to use a token, which converts the account number and expiration date into a separate, new value with a dynamically generated Token Verification Value (DTVV). The DTVV is collected and used in the same manner as the 3-digit Cardholder Verification Value (CVV2) found on the back of a physical card.

The token autofill feature is automatically enabled for all merchants. Please assess if your business is prepared to accept a token for purchases. No additional action is required if your business is ready to accept tokens for transactions made through a browser.

June 2022 - MasterCard DSRP Cryptograms in Remote Commerce Transactions

June 7, 2022, Mastercard now validates Digital Secure Remote Payment (DSRP) cryptograms when present in e-commerce cardholder-initiated transactions (CIT) and merchant-initiated transactions (MIT).

Reusing the same DSRP cryptogram across CITs and MITs will result in the transaction getting declined as replayed attempts. These changes will allow Mastercard to further strengthen the security and integrity of your e-commerce transactions.

October 2022 - Visa Discontinues Support of 3DS 1.0.2

Starting October 15, 2022, Visa will no longer support 3-D Secure (3DS) 1.0.2 and related technology. 3DS 1.0.2 transactions attempted after this date will fail and must be submitted as non-authenticated (ECI 7) transactions. Merchants must migrate to 3DS 2 prior to October 2022.

Please visit the Developer Center for the complete specifications required to migrate to 3DS 2 to continue to receive liability protection after October 2022.

Debit Network Changes

July 2022- NYCE address verification service optional

Effective July 1, 2022, NYCE debit network will make the Address Verification Service optional for PINless POS transactions, and zip code data will no longer be required at Automated Fuel Dispensers

NYCE Enhanced Data File Activity Fee Modification

On July 1, 2022, NYCE will modify its Enhanced Data File Activity Fee. The amount is tiered and based upon the monthly volume of transactions processed by NYCE for each file as outlined below.

Table—NYCE Data File Activity Fee

The fee will be assessed against all NYCE PIN and PINless transactions.

PULSE Pricing Changes for PINless Point-of-Sale Debit Card Transactions

On July 15, 2022, PULSE is implementing new interchange rates for PINless point-of-sale debit transactions conducted with cards that participate in the PULSE PAY® Limited and PULSE Prepaid issuer. (As shown in the tables below.)

Table 1—PULSE PAY and PULSE PAY Choice Non-Regulated Express Merchant Interchange Fees

Table 2—PULSE PAY Limited and PULSE Prepaid Non-Regulated Express Merchant Interchange Fees

Table 3—PULSE PAY and PULSE PAY Choice Non-Regulated PINless E-Commerce Interchange

Table 4—PULSE PAY Limited and PULSE Prepaid Non-Regulated PINless E-Commerce Interchange Fees

Table 5—PULSE PAY and PULSE PAY Choice Non-Regulated PINless Bill Pay Interchange Fees

Table 6—PULSE PAY Limited and PULSE Prepaid Non-Regulated PINless Bill Pay Interchange Fees

It's always important for merchants to stay abreast of the rules and processes that govern their payment processing. But it's sometimes difficult for merchants to keep up on all the changes. Many of these changes will affect the way businesses accept their payments and the fees they pay to do so. That's why it's important to have a service oriented Merchant Account Provider that prioritizes their clients' needs. 

MonerePay is a highly educated Enterprise Merchant Account Provider dedicated to its clients' success. We prioritize notifying and supporting our clients regarding any payment industry changes that potentially affect their merchant account, business processes, and costs. 

One of the biggest changes in this recent update is the Visa Token Service (VTS) for web browsers. Since this will be automatically enabled for all businesses, owners must make sure their gateway is ready to accept a token for payment. In order to ensure improved security for CNP transactions, contact your gateway provider today. 

At MonerePay, staying abreast of card brand rules and how they affect our clients is a top priority. If you're concerned about how any of these updates will affect your business, contact us today.