[REMINDER] Terminal Entry Capability (TEC) Requirements

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[REMINDER] Terminal Entry Capability (TEC) Requirements

The Program: Terminal Entry Capability (TEC) is a value that indicates the highest level of card entry a terminal is capable of accepting. To ensure compliance with processing requirements; including EMV
fraud liability and data integrity edits, it is imperative the TEC value is correct.

The Impact/Action Required: Merchants are reminded to provide the proper TEC values in both their authorization and settlement messages. Brand edits have been established to monitor and ensure that the TEC provided aligns with what the terminal actually supports. Failure to submit a proper TEC value may result in non-compliance assessments.

As an example, a transaction is considered out of compliance when the TEC sent indicates that the terminal only supports contact EMV, but the transaction was performed as contactless EMV. In this example the TEC should have properly indicated that the terminal is capable of contactless EMV.

*EMD settlement merchants are reminded of their requirement to ensure the TEC values obtained during authorization are also sent in settlement.