Mastercard enhancements to Account Status Inquiry

Effective date: November 7, 2023

The Account Status Inquiry (ASI) service is an optional non-financial transaction used to confirm that a cardholder’s account is open and valid, and it optionally confirms the address and Card Validation Code 2 (CVC2). Mastercard is enhancing the ASI service to allow merchants to also confirm the cardholder’s name. As a reminder, use of the ASI Service will incur a payment network pass through fee refer to the Payment Network Pass-Through Fee Schedule(PDF) – the Payment Network Pass-Through Fee Schedule(PDF).

Mastercard introduces new Merchant Advice Codes

Effective date: November 7, 2023

Mastercard is introducing two new Merchant Advice Code (MAC) values for authorization responses. The new MAC values will inform merchants that the card product is a consumer non-reloadable prepaid card or a consumer single-use virtual card number. This information will help merchants improve card-not-present transaction management by properly identifying transactions that should not be reattempted.

Depending on the technology used to process transactions, one or more actions, such as contacting the independent software vendor (ISV), re-coding to First Data specifications (if coded directly), and updating terminals or other products and applications, may be necessary and at an added fee.

Visa introduces Account Screen in North America to help issuers block activity on closed accounts

Effective date: October 14, 2023

Visa will introduce Account Screen, a new comprehensive global solution to enable issuers to quickly and efficiently block list accounts to stop future authorization and transaction clearing activity. Block listed accounts include those with the following action codes:

• 04—Pick up card (no fraud)
• 05—Do not honor
• 07—Pick up card, special condition (fraud account)
• 14—Invalid account number (no such number)
• 41—Lost card, pick up (fraud account)
• 43—Stolen card, pick up (fraud account)
• 46—Closed account
• 54—Expired card or expiration date missing

Merchants continuing to try to process a card after receiving one of these action codes will be subject to payment network pass through fees and potential non-compliance fees.

Mastercard standards for checkout sound and animation

Effective date: February 7, 2023, and August 7, 2023

Mastercard is adding standards around the use of the Mastercard checkout sound and animation to the Mastercard Rules and to the Mastercard Brand Center. The standards will require that if any sound and/or animation associated with another payment option is enabled on a point-of-sale (POS) terminal or at the point of interaction (POI), Mastercard’s checkout sound and/or animation must be enabled on such POS terminal or POI and must be played and/or displayed for Mastercard and Maestro transactions, in compliance with the checkout sound and animation standards.
• Effective February 7, 2023, revised standards became effective for all Mastercard Rules chapters and sections except for Chapter 4, Section 16.2.
• Effective August 7, 2023, revised standards will become effective for Mastercard Rules Chapter 4, Section 16.2.

Mastercard Account Level Management Product Graduation Plus

Effective date: Informational

Account Level Management (ALM) Product Graduation Plus allows issuers the flexibility of migrating cardholders to card programs that are right for the cardholder as their lifestyle needs and preferences change, without changing the 16-digit Primary Account Number (PAN). Participating issuers with actively registered accounts will receive differentiated interchange rates for transactions processed through the Mastercard network on any card that has been migrated through the Product Graduation Plus functionality. The ALM Product Graduation Plus service includes both upward and downward migrations to support true life cycle management of the cardholder’s PAN.

While action is not required of merchants, this program may impact reconciliation between a transaction’s published qualified interchange program rate and the actual assessed rate.

Mastercard revises standards for “No cardholder authorization” disputes

For: Merchants processing merchant-initiated transactions
Effective date: April 14, 2023

To challenge a dispute chargeback on a merchant-initiated transaction (MIT) with reason code 4837 (No Cardholder Authorization), a merchant may provide authorization data from a previous transaction that the cardholder conducted at the merchant as compelling evidence of the cardholder’s participation in the disputed transaction. The authorization data must show that the previous transaction either was fully authenticated or contained card validation code 2 (CVC 2) data that the issuer verified.

Avoiding credit card terminal refund fraud

Effective date: Informational

Credit card terminal theft is increasing, allowing criminals to send fraudulent refunds to their own prepaid gift cards. We want to make sure you are aware of the steps you can take to help avoid this type of fraud.

Terminal security best practices
• Ensure that all terminals require a passcode for refund transactions.
• Don’t use default, generic, or guessable passcodes, such as 1234 or your business address.
• Ensure that your terminals are in a secure location, especially when unattended.
• Don’t post passcodes near terminals.
• Review transaction history to verify refund transactions.
• For Clover® devices:
o Ensure that the Employees app is up to date, deleting employees who no longer have a business need for access.
o Configure the permissions so only an administrator can issue a refund for a previous sale transaction.

In the event of terminal theft and refund fraud
First, contact your local law enforcement to report the stolen terminal(s). Then contact the Merchant Services Help Desk at 1-800-451-5817 for additional assistance to remove the terminal(s) from your account.

If you have any questions about the specific steps to protect terminals supported by Wells Fargo (Clover, FD150, or Verifone®), please let me know.

The Clover® name and logo are trademarks owned by Clover Network, Inc., an affiliate of First Data Merchant Services LLC, and registered or used in the U.S. and many foreign countries.

Visa updates and clarifications to dispute rules language

Effective date: April 15, 2023

Visa updated the dispute rule language and made other revisions in the Visa Rules (PDF) for clarity and consistency. The changes listed below will be effective April 15, 2023.

Credits/reversals processed prior to a dispute
Visa has seen an increase in cases where a credit was processed prior to the dispute and the issuer did not address the credit. When a credit is processed, the issuer must provide information to confirm why the credit does not resolve the dispute. Explanations such as “credit does not apply” will not be accepted. This limited information can lead to a delayed resolution of the dispute and may also result in unnecessary fees associated with an arbitration filing.

With this update, when a credit was processed before the dispute, the issuer must either: apply the credit to the disputed transaction or provide the transaction identifier or acquirer reference number, the date of the transaction the credit was applied to, and why the credit does not resolve the dispute.

Examples of proper certification include, but are not limited to:
• This merchant credit is related to another purchase the cardholder made and then returned. Therefore, the merchant credit was applied to the transaction with acquirer reference number (ARN) 12345678901234567890123 that posted on August 22, 2022. The cardholder is due a credit for the transaction in dispute.
• The merchant processed four transactions and only two credits. The merchant credits were applied to a transaction with ARN 12345678901234567890123 that posted on June 5, 2022, and a transaction with ARN 12345678901234567890124 that posted on August 1, 2022. Since all four transactions were disputed as fraud, the cardholder is due credit for the two remaining transactions.

Additional rule updates
To promote more efficient dispute resolution, the supporting documentation, certification requirements, and miscellaneous updates listed below will be included with the revisions.

Dispute Condition Update
Dispute Condition 10.4: Other Fraud—Card-Absent Environment (Pre-Arbitration Processing Requirements) Obsolete language regarding digital goods and merchants assigned under Merchant Category Code (MCC) 5815—Digital Goods Media—Books, Movies, Digital artwork/images, Music will be removed.
Dispute Condition 12.5: Incorrect Amount (Dispute Processing Requirements) A requirement will be added for issuers to provide a copy of the transaction receipt with the correct transaction amount to support the dispute.
Dispute Condition 13.1: Merchandise/Services Not Received (Dispute Processing Requirements) A requirement will be added for issuers to provide the date a merchant cancelled for dispute scenarios where the cardholder did not receive services due to a merchant cancellation.
Dispute Condition 13.5: Misrepresentation (Dispute Rights) The Visa Rules for the Europe region will be aligned with the rest of the world.
Dispute Condition 13.6: Credit Not Processed (Invalid Disputes) The rules will be updated to confirm that disputes are not permitted for automated fuel dispenser transactions.
Dispute Condition 13.7: Cancelled Merchandise/Services (Dispute Processing Requirements) A requirement will be added for issuers to provide a detailed description of the merchandise or services purchased to support the dispute.
Compliance Conditions/Required Documentation Obsolete language regarding a Counterfeit Card Transaction with Incomplete Data will be removed.
Compliance Filing Conditions The requirement to provide the planned compliance filing date will be removed.