The way we do business is changing. Over the past few decades, shoppers have shifted their preferences from in-store to online and mobile formats, among others. Types of payment methods have also rapidly expanded in recent years. While credit and debit cards are still widely used, new card-based alternative payment methods like digital wallets, P2P payments, and other contactless methods have expanded greatly.
The industry has grown with new innovative cards, issuing banks, and payment solutions are popping up seemingly every day. This growth has placed increased stress on the number of Bank Identifying Numbers (BINs) in circulation. In 2017, Visa, alongside the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced plans to modify the BIN standard from 6-digits to 8-digits. This change will take effect April 2022.
What does this mean for sellers and resellers?
With any change in the payment ecosystem, modification to systems, processes, and reporting must be made to ensure readiness. Much of the burden for this new standardization is carried by issuers, acquirers, and processors; however, sellers may have some important updates to work through in anticipation of the April 2022 timeline. 6-digit BINs will still be around for a while. Acquirers, processors, issuers, and third-party solution providers should be able to work with both 6-digit and 8-digit standards. Beginning in April 2022, no new 6-digit BINs will be provisioned by Visa.
Verifi recommends our sellers work closely with their acquirer/processors to understand their readiness for the new BIN standardization. Additionally, sellers may want to consider reviewing the following to ensure their internal processes or partners are ready for April 2022:
- Transaction routing with acquirer/processor
- Fraud prevention parameters
- Reporting, analytics, and reconciliation
How are Verifi’s products and solutions impacted?
In anticipation of the new BIN standardization in April 2022, Verifi completed a full impact analysis of our solutions. Based on this, it was determined that impacts on our products are minor.
Reporting and analytics from our platforms will not be impacted.
Many Verifi solutions are connected with Visa’s issuer-facing systems. Verifi will be able to support the intake of data requests for our pre-dispute solutions, including 8-digit BIN information that is provided from Visa and non-Visa card brands.
Verifi’s latest product, Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR) uses a rules-based decision engine that allows sellers to automatically accept dispute liability in real time. One such rule within the decision engine is “Issuer BIN”. Liability for pre-disputes can be accepted or rejected based on this criterion. With the upcoming change from 6- to 8-digit Visa Issuer BIN in 2022, RDR will not be affected, and the rule will run as normal.
Resources
We understand that this is a major industry change that impacts nearly all stakeholders in the payments ecosystem. Verifi has diligently worked to measure and address potential impacts to our clients to ensure our industry leading dispute management solutions are prepared for this change.
Visa has shared additional information to help guide sellers, issuers, acquirers, processors, and third-party service providers:
- Preparing for Eight Digit BIN
- Numerics Initiative: Simplified Requirements for Eight-Digit Issuing BIN Adoption
- What Merchants Need to Know – Preparing for Eight-Digit BINs (article)
- What Merchants Need to Know – Preparing for Eight-Digit BINs (webinar)
Verifi is committed to keeping our clients and partners up-to-date on the latest developments in payments. Any further details on the topic of the new 8-digit BIN standardization will be shared.