Master Card ‘2’ Series BINs

What it is?

Currently the card numbers for all MasterCard cards start with ‘5’. The first 6 digit of the Card number, called as Bank Identification Numbers (BINs), fall between the range of 510000–559999 for MasterCard. This is as per the standards set by International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

MasterCard is introducing a new series of BINs that begin with a “2” (222100–272099). The “2” series BINs will be processed the same as the existing “510000–559999” series BINs.

Background

The payment industry today is steadily evolving to include new technologies along with the traditional payment methods and the no of consumers using credit or debit cards are increasing exponentially. It is anticipated that the existing BIN ranges of MasterCard will be exhausted pretty soon, hence the requirement of introducing a new series of BINs was always looming large.

On top of this, to accommodate the ever emerging needs of the payment technologies, the existing BINs always need to undergo significant changes which equates to additional cost, time and human resources. The new series of BINs will probably be more futuristic in nature, and the changes to cater the needs of the market should be easier.

The new series of BINs should be transparent to the customers from the perspective of usage.

Timelines

MasterCard expects that the “2” series BINs to be completely supported no later than Release 16.Q4 (Compliance 16.2 in 2016) on 14 October 2016.

The roadmap shared by MasterCard is currently as follows:

·         March 1, 2015 – MasterCard started scheduling the testing with Members (Issuing Banks, Acquiring Banks, Merchants, Vendors and Third Party Processors).Certification will be required.

·         June 1, 2015 – Members can test offline with MasterCard.

·         September 21, 2015 – Online testing with MasterCard begins.

·         October 14, 2016 – All members must be able to support 2 series BINs.

·         2017 – Cards will be on the street as MasterCard will start issuing the new series of BINs to the Banks.

Impacts

This change will have impacts across almost all the aspects of a card processing. Some of these are given below –

·         Transaction Routing and Processing

·         ATM Systems Update

·         POS Systems Update

·         Other Terminals Update

·         Updates in the processing of e-commerce payments with the Cards

·         Merchant Software Updates

·         Card Production

·         Card Design and Personalization

·         Rewards and Loyalty Processing

·         Mobile Banking Apps

·         Mobile Wallets

·         IVR

·         Web banking Pages

·         Customer Service Applications for Cards

·         Host Systems

·         Authorization

·         Clearing and Settlements

·         Chargeback and Disputes Processing

·         Collections

·         Statements

·         Branch Banking Applications

All the following stakeholders will be impacted.

·         Acquirers

·         Issuers

·         Merchants

·         Third Party Processors (TPP)

·         Vendors

·         Independent Service Organizations

·         Value Added Resellers (VAR)

Impact on Acquirers

·         Acquirers and processors must recognize, process, and route the ‘2’ series transactions as MasterCard transactions.

·         Point-of-sale (POS) terminal manufacturers, software providers, and POS terminals must recognize the 2 series BINs as MasterCard.

·         New BIN ranges have same impact as existing MasterCard BINs on:

§  Products

§  Pricing and Interchange

§  Settlement and Reconciliation

§  Reporting

·         All merchants processed by acquirers for both card present and card not present channels must recognize the 2 series BINs. These include, but are not limited to, the following types of merchants:

§  E-commerce

§  Mobile

§  Mail Order/Telephone Order (MO/TO)

§  Brick and mortar

§  ATM

§  Cardholder Activated Terminals (CAT)

Impact on Issuers

·         Transactions on PANs within the 222100–272099 BINs must be authorized, operate seamlessly, and follow the same logic and handling as the PANs within the 510000–559999 range.

·         The same MasterCard rules that apply to the 2 series BINs will apply to the 5 series BINs

·         Issuers and processors must recognize, process, and route the transactions as MasterCard transactions

·         New BIN ranges have same impact as existing MasterCard BINs on:

§  Products

§  Pricing and Interchange

§  Settlement and Reconciliation

§  Reporting

·         Loyalty and rewards programs must recognize the 2 series BINs as MasterCard Service Providers, card manufacturers, prepaid card vendors, and program managers must recognize the 2 series BINs as MasterCard

·         Issuers must recognize the new BIN ranges for:

§  Card production

§  Card design

§  Card personalization

§  Benefits

§  Rewards/Loyalty

§  Authorization

§  Clearing and Settlement

§  IVR

§  ATMs (On-US)

§  Statements

§  Chargebacks and Disputes Processing

§  Operational Processes and Procedures

·         Multinational issuers such as HSBC, Citi, Standard Chartered, Barclays will have a global impact

Impact on TPPs, Vendors, ISOs and VARs

·         POS terminal manufacturers and software providers recognize the 2 series BINs as MasterCard BINs

·         Value-added resellers, payment facilitators, and other stakeholders must update their systems and software and make the necessary configuration changes to recognize the 2 series BINs as MasterCard BINs

·         Prepaid card vendors must recognize the 2 series BINs as MasterCard BINs

·         Card manufacturers and card personalization must  recognize the new BIN range

Impact on Consumers

·         2017 onwards the consumers will be able to carry the physical or virtual plastics with card numbers starting with 2 from Master Card

·         Consumers could have impacts due the pricing of the new series of BINs but same features as of the existing BINs will be available