Region: US
9 November 2023
Visa is reminding stakeholders of the upcoming merchant requirements for implementation of mandatory changes related to Visa’s Fleet 2.0 initiative. As outlined and required in the Visa Rules (ID#: 0027524), a merchant that accepts a Visa Fleet Card must provide enhanced data for Visa Fleet Card transactions classified under the following merchant category codes (MCCs):
Acquirers and fuel merchants participating in the Visa Fleet program were originally required to have implemented Visa Fleet 2.0 changes effective with the April 2022 VisaNet Business Enhancements release. As a result of the pressures and challenges in the marketplace due to competing requirements and the impact of COVID-19 on the availability of resources, Visa announced that it would provide waivers for merchants with committed delivery times until October 2023, and that no further grace period should be expected after October 2023 for merchants that do not support Fleet 2.0 processing at the point of sale. From November 2023, Visa will assess the readiness of merchants and move forward with compliance actions where applicable.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
13 September 2023
Effective 14 October 2023, the Visa Rules will be updated to include the Visa Fraud Dispute Monitoring Program to monitor merchant-provided qualification data submitted as a remedy for Dispute Condition 10.4: Other Fraud—Card-Absent Environment.
Regions: US, Canada
7 September 2023
Compelling Evidence 3.0 was launched in April 2023 and since then both pre-dispute and pre-arbitration have seen strong adoption, providing deflection and representment benefits to merchants globally. On Wednesday, September 20th at 9AM PT, Visa will hold a Compelling Evidence 3.0 webinar presented by Verifi. The webinar will share the results these benefits have realized and provide an update from clients live on Systematic Dispute Deflection. In addition to sharing beta results for CE3.0, Verifi will also share aggregated deflection statistics and discuss the future of Order Insight®. Register for the Compelling Evidence 3.0 webinar.
Regions: US, Canada
6 September 2023
Did you know 40% of consumers have said they won’t return to a merchant if they receive a false decline?* Balancing fraud management and the customer experience can be difficult, but it’s pivotal to delivering the secure and seamless digital experience that your customers expect. Network tokens can help you find the right combination of fighting fraud and meeting customer expectations. Join Visa experts as we take you through the ins and outs of network tokenization – what it is, how it can benefit your customers, and how you can implement it. Register for the webinar.
*Source: State of Consumer Attitudes on Ecommerce, Fraud & CX 2021, ClearSale
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
10 August 2023
An updated version of the Anti-Enumeration and Account Testing Best Practices Guide for Merchants is now available. The merchant best practice guide provides updated guidance on how to protect the ecosystem from attacks such as enumeration and account testing and is intended to help merchants more effectively defend against these attacks. Visa is reminding clients that it is critical to maintain appropriate controls to block such fraud attacks as part of their obligation to safeguard payment account information and payments system participants.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
4 August 2023
Offline plaintext PIN support requirements for Unattended Cardholder Activated Terminals (UCATs) will be sunset. As a result, effective 1 Jan 2024, new UCAT devices must not support offline plaintext PIN and effective 1 Jan 2025, all UCAT devices must not support offline plaintext PIN. Merchants that operate UCATs that support offline plaintext PIN will need to work with their device vendor to de-activate support of offline plaintext PIN.
Region: US
19 May 2023
Merchants that are certified by the Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards (SIGIS) to accept flexible spending account (FSA) cards are responsible for ensuring that Inventory Information Approval System (IIAS) details are included in the transactions for all supported entry modes. Acquirers and merchants should be using test scripts provided by Visa to test the various POS entry modes for IIAS/Auto-Substantiation services.
Any new POS entry mode, such as EMV contact chip or contactless chip, enabled for a merchant is expected to be functional for any Visa card that is set up to use that specific entry mode, including EMV-enabled FSAs.
As a reminder, SIGIS-certified merchants, or their partners such as a gateway, value-added reseller, POS vendor or other third party , are expected to ensure that any specific services a merchant supports, such as IIAS, should work for all entry modes the merchant is enabled or certified for. By ensuring SIGIS-certified merchants are able to support IIAS for all merchant-supported entry modes, merchants can help reduce declines due to missing IIAS details and improve the cardholder experience.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
26 Apr 2023
On Thursday, May 18 at 9am PT, Visa will hold a Compelling Evidence 3.0 webinar hosted by Denise Gibbons (Head of Merchant Client Relations, Verifi) and Bibek Das (Product Director, Verifi). The webinar will discuss consumer trends, network-level dispute performance, and new strategies to combat first-party misuse.
The session will also cover how merchants can leverage the Compelling Evidence (CE) rule change in both the pre-dispute path (deflecting the dispute prior to formal processing) and post-dispute path (providing the qualified CE3.0 data in pre-arbitration) for Visa transactions. A merchant will share details about how they manage their post-purchase experience internally and for their customers. Registration is required; attendees should register here for this event.
Regions: US, Canada
24 Apr 2023
On April 15, the Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE 3.0) rule change went into effect, helping to fight friendly fraud in Card-Not-Present transactions. To promote this exciting new development, Visa partnered with PYMNTS.com on an article discussing the current dispute landscape, how Compelling Evidence 3.0 can help fight friendly fraud, and how the whole payments ecosystem can come together to reduce fraud. The article features an interview with Mike Lemberger, Head of NA Risk, and is an exciting example of how Visa executives promote the CE 3.0 rule change.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
14 Apr 2023
Visa Rules include many requirements to ensure that merchants conduct Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) in a transparent manner that does not confuse cardholders. Visa is reminding that merchants may be audited at Visa’s discretion to confirm compliance with the DCC requirements and ensure a good cardholder experience. DCC audits are conducted in all channels, including in-store POS locations, ATM, and at card-absent merchants. These audits determine if transactions are compliant with disclosure, active choice, transaction receipt and other Visa requirements. Merchants should work with their acquirers to ensure that they are meeting compliance requirements.
Regions: US, Canada, LAC
6 April 2023
On April 25th, 2023, Visa will host a webinar detailing the post-dispute Compelling Evidence 3.0 pre-arbitration process for merchants and acquirers. In this webinar, Visa will review the process flow whereby merchants plan to supply qualified data through their acquirer for Compelling Evidence 3.0 packages to combat suspected first-party misuse on Visa 10.4 disputes. Register for Visa CE3.0: Post-Dispute Pre-Arbitration Process Flow.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
6 April 2023
Visa is reminding clients that its authorization framework will be expanded effective 15 April 2023 to allow merchants to use estimated and incremental authorizations for purchases where the final transaction amount is not known up front. Certain transaction types will be excluded, including account funding transactions (including cryptocurrency purchases), advance payment transactions, ATM cash disbursement transactions, installment transactions, manual and quasi-cash transactions and recurring payment transactions. For more information on the expanded authorization framework, merchants should contact their acquirers.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
6 April 2023
Verification of a cardholder’s name provides merchants with an additional security check during card onboarding and pre-transaction checks. Performing a name verification in advance of a transaction can help reduce exposure to fraud and scams in subsequent transactions of any kind, in particular in pull and push transactions (AFTs/OCTs) where fraud and scams have been on the rise globally.
If a merchant’s acquirer has enabled Account Name Inquiry, the merchant or originator will be able to perform name checks starting from October 2023, for cards issued in the US, Canada and the UK. Merchant’s wishing to take advantage of the many benefits that name checking can bring should contact their acquirer for guidance on enabling the feature.
Region: US
24 March 2023
As previously announced, Visa will implement a fee for Point of Sale Entry Mode 91 (POSEM 91) transactions. Fees for all retail merchant category codes (MCCs) are effective April 1, 2023 with the exception of MCC 5541 (Service Station) and 5542 (Automated Fuel Dispensers) which will be effective January 1, 2024.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
6 March 2023
Visa is reminding all payment ecosystem entities that they should employ strict monitoring of all network traffic and firewall traffic that may facilitate payment data or other processes, and that payment data should only traverse approved systems or protocols. Visa is reinforcing the recently published Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v4.0 to ensure that all payment participants are implementing security controls against potential vulnerabilities, weaknesses and threat vectors that can be exploited by cyber threats. Visa is committed to ensuring card data security as the landscape evolves and new innovations are brought to market.
The PCI DSS is an industry standard that provides a baseline of technical and operational requirements designed to protect payment card account data. An entity must be compliant with all PCI DSS requirements to protect Visa cardholder data. Any PCI DSS requirements that are not in place can cause or contribute to an entity losing payment data through unauthorized access. Published in March 2022, PCI DSS v4.0 addresses emerging threats and technologies and enables innovative methods to combat these new threats. Adherence to PCI DSS v4.0 helps ensure an entity promotes data security as a continuous process and protects their payment card environment from evolving threats. For more information, refer to the resources below.
Additional resources:
Regions: US, Canada, LAC
6 March 2023
Visa has updated its dispute processing rules with an initiative known as Compelling Evidence 3.0, which will come into effect on 15 April 2023. To help the industry prepare for the updated Compelling Evidence rules and processes, Visa hosted a Compelling Evidence 301 webinar on February 14th. Register here to access the recording of that session.
If you were not able to attend the last session, Visa is re-running the webinar on March 14th, 2023 detailing the rule updates and how the industry can benefit from reducing first-party misuse. Registration is required; attendees should register here for this event.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, LAC, EUROPE
28 February 2023
Visa chose to hold reassignment of eight-digit BINs returned prior to April 2022 for at least a year following the adoption of the new eight-digit BIN standard. This was to give the ecosystem time to carry out any remaining system development needed to support this global industry change.
Visa is reminding payments ecosystem participants that they may begin seeing eight-digit BINs with the same six-digit prefix across different issuers and product lines as early as April 2023. Entities currently only reading to the sixth digit on BIN tables to make authorization and other decisions will need to update their systems by April 2023 to read out to the eighth digit, at a minimum, to prevent potential impact.
Regions: US, Canada, AP, CEMEA, EU, LAC
15 February 2023
Visa is reminding clients that disputes for crypto purchases should be handled in the same manner as all other disputes. Properly processed account funding transactions (AFTs) and quasi-cash transactions have limited dispute rights. All disputes must comply with the applicable rules in Section 11—Dispute Resolution of the Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Services Rules. Dispute rights are based on the nature of the claim and the processing codes which are used in the transaction. Visa expects its clients to act in good faith and make every effort to be flexible when resolving disputed transactions involving cardholders and merchants. The Visa Rules require that cardholders work directly with the merchant to resolve their issue ahead of initiating a dispute with their issuer.
Regions: US, Canada, LAC
1 February 2023
To help clients prepare for the updated Compelling Evidence (CE) rules and processes that will come into effect on April 15, 2023, Visa and Verifi will be hosting the Compelling Evidence 301 webinar on February 14 and the dispute mitigation strategies webinar on March 1.
The CE 301 webinar is a continuation of the introductory Compelling Evidence 101 and 201 webinars and will be more technical and integration-focused, clarifying recurring client questions and updating some technical information. Register for Evolution of Compelling Evidence 301.
The dispute mitigation strategies webinar, titled “CE 3.0, Are You Ready?” will review dispute best practices for merchants, including industry trends, transaction data sharing methods, and ways merchants can get ready to implement CE 3.0 in April. Register for CE 3.0, Are You Ready?.
Regions: US, AP, Canada, CEMEA, LAC, Europe
12 January 2023
In 2023, Visa expects to see a significant increase in issuer migration to eight-digit Bank Identification Numbers (BINs). And, effective April 2023, as returned BINs are reassigned, Visa will allow BINs with the same six-digit prefix to be utilized in the reassigned eight-digit BIN to different issuers, for different products, in different regions. In February 2023, Visa hosted a merchant-focused webinar to review potential impact areas and help ensure merchant readiness to support eight-digit BINs. To access a recording of that webinar, visit the Visa Numerics Initiative website or visit the ON24 website to access the on-demand webinar and accompanying deck (first time users will be prompted to register).
Regions: US, Canada
15 Dec 2022
Effective 15 April 2023, cardholder-initiated transactions using a credential-on-file token provisioned from a device-based token will be reclassified as electronic commerce indicator (ECI) 05, subject to meeting specified requirements.
Region: US
15 Dec 2022
U.S. domestic token transactions in high-risk merchant category codes (MCCs) will continue to have issuer fraud dispute rights, regardless of electronic commerce indicator (ECI) classification. As such, fully authenticated CNP token transactions from the following MCCs in the U.S. region will continue to be ineligible for dispute protection for Dispute Condition 10.4:
Acquirers must notify merchants with high-risk MCCs that process secure e-commerce transactions that these transactions will not be eligible for fraud dispute protection from Dispute Condition 10.4: Other Fraud—Card Absent Environment.
Regions: US, AP, Canada, CEMEA LAC, Europe
1 Dec 2022
Effective 15 April 2023, Visa will implement increased authorization limits for some automated fuel dispenser (AFD) transactions acquired by U.S. fuel merchants, and implement a requirement for all U.S. AFD transactions to support partial authorization. The U.S. AFD $1 status check authorization limit of $175 will be extended to all non-Fleet card transactions while the transaction limit for all Fleet cards will be increased to $1,000. For AFD Real-Time Clearing, the preauthorization limit for Fleet card transactions will be increased from $500 to $1,000, while the limit for non-Fleet card AFD transactions will remain at $500.
Region: US
20 Oct 2022
Visa Commercial Choice (VCC) is a suite of capabilities and services that allows financial institutions (on behalf of their commercial customers) and merchants / suppliers to establish flexible client-to-client fee agreements. Effective with the upcoming April 2023 VisaNet Business Enhancements release, Visa’s proprietary VCC capability will support the following foundational enhancements: small business card products; debit and prepaid funding sources (where applicable); fleet-specific ticket size tiers (U.S. only). For more information, merchants should contact their acquirers.
Region: US
13 Oct 2022
Visa is adding enhancements to allow for electric vehicle charging enhanced data and multiple fuel codes on Fleet Card transactions. Visa Fleet Card issuers must support the new dataset, tags and values in the V.I.P. System. Acquirers that process fuel / EV charging transactions may optionally support the new dataset, tags and values in the V.I.P. System. For more information on the enhanced data, merchants should contact their acquirers.
Region: US
13 Oct 2022
As acceptance and usage of contactless payments grows in the U.S., it is important to offer the most secure experience possible to protect the payment ecosystem and to earn the trust of consumers. In support of this, since 2019, all terminals accepting contactless payments in the U.S. have been required to actively support EMV®-based contactless functionality, or qVSDC, and to disable the mag stripe version of contactless payments – POS Entry Mode 91, more commonly known as MSD. To encourage the use of qVSDC contactless, Visa is moving forward with a fee for POS Entry Mode 91 transactions beginning on April 1, 2023.
Visa published an easy-to-use guide to help smaller merchants navigate the world of transaction disputes. For more information, please see Dispute Management Guidelines for Visa Merchants on Visa.com.
The updated resource defines required procedures in response to an account data compromise.
As merchants in United States enable their payment card acceptance infrastructure for EMV chip technology starting October 1, 2015, counterfeit fraud will increasingly migrate to acceptance segments that have not implemented EMV chip technology, such as automated fuel dispensers (AFDs). This will lead to counterfeit fraud chargeback liability for fuel merchants if AFD EMV chip acceptance enablement is not completed by October 1, 2020.
Visa prepaid and debit cards are popular forms of payment at the register. Visa’s Partial Authorization service provides an alternative to declining a transaction when the card’s available balance is not sufficient to approve a transaction in full. Participating issuers return an authorization response with an approval for a portion of the original amount requested, enabling the remainder of the transaction amount to be paid by other means using split tender functionality.
More webinars and documents containing in-depth information designed to help Visa merchants navigate acceptance, fraud, data security, authorization and more. Download, print and keep them on hand at your business.
This digest consists of summaries only and does not supersede or modify Visa Business News publications. Please contact your Acquirer for further information about any publications. Actual Visa Business News articles are not public materials and should not be treated as public documents, e.g., posting on merchant websites, etc.
The Visa Business News was launched to Europe clients on August 11, 2016. Prior to that, announcements were communicated via Visa Europe Member Letter.
