Visa is reminding clients that Visa Smart Debit / Credit and quick Visa Smart Debit / Credit transactions must successfully pass cryptogram verification during testing. Additionally, Visa is providing updates about Level 3 testing in the U.S.
Visa has updated the Account Funding Transaction (AFT): Processing Guide (English only). Clients and their partners that originate or receive AFTs should review the updated guide for information on how to best support these transactions.
Visa is reminding clients of the brand standards for contactless point-of-sale terminals.
Download article about brand standards for contactless point-of-sale terminals
Effective 18 April 2020, the Visa Rules will be updated to ensure issuers, acquirers and their sponsored merchants control first party fraud. First party fraud is a concern for all parties in the payment system. This occurs when a cardholder seeks reimbursement or a credit for legitimately purchased goods and services, resulting in potential disputes and creating additional costs for all participants.
Visa has released Revision 2.3B of the Contactless Device Evaluation Toolkit.
Download article about new revision of contactless device evaluation toolkit
Visa has simplified the registration process for the International Airline Program, expanded program registration requirements to domestic airlines and updated the Visa International Airline Program Guide.
Download article about simplified international airline program
Visa is reminding acquirers, their merchants and issuers that they must correctly process zero-amount account verification messages.
Download article about account verification message processing reminders
Visa has clarified its acceptance policies to support updated Visa Product Brand Standards that offer greater flexibility in card design. To ensure an optimal cardholder experience, acquirers and merchants should be aware of Visa’s new card design options.
Effective immediately, Visa has modified standards to allow increased flexibility when issuers are designing Visa cards. Key changes include fewer required card elements and broader options for placement and color of the Visa Brand Mark.
To support these updated card design options, the Visa Rules have been updated to clarify cardholder verification requirements for cards without signature panels. For transactions with cards that do not have a signature panel, merchants do not have to validate a cardholder’s signature.¹ Additionally, issuers will not be permitted to raise a request for copy (RFC) for a transaction receipt. This applies regardless of whether the merchant has deployed an EMV®-capable terminal.²
¹ Visa cards issued in the U.S. will continue to contain a signature panel, but merchants may be presented with Visa cards issued from outside the U.S., which may not contain a signature panel.
² Merchants with non-EMV capable terminals (i) must continue to capture and validate a cardholder signature and (ii) remain subject to RFCs for transactions on all other cards above the applicable Visa Easy Payment Service (VEPS) limit, if no PIN is obtained.
Visa has published a new version of the U.S. Visa Contactless Transit Terminal Testing document to Visa Online. The document contains a new back office process that is required for mass transit merchants and processors / acquirers in the U.S. when testing a terminal accepting contactless payments at a transit gate. In addition, new U.S. test card images are available.
Issuers are reminded that they are prohibited from using the estimated, non-final pre-authorization amounts for Visa and Interlink automated fuel dispenser (AFD) transactions in any cardholder communications, including fraud alerts. Issuers may communicate either no transaction amount or the final AFD transaction amount, which can be obtained by receiving the enhanced AFD and real-time clearing acquirer confirmation messages.
Visa is allowing merchants in the U.S. to provide additional types of compelling evidence for card-present U.S. domestic key entered transactions processed at non-chip terminals.
Visa will require clients that connect to Visa Direct APIs to support Message Level Encryption.
The Visa Merchant Data Standards Manual has been updated to provide additional details and clarifications on some merchant category code descriptions. The document remains publicly available at visa.com to make it easily accessible to all clients, merchants, agents and processors.
Visa’s What To Do If Compromised document has been updated to more clearly define required procedures and timelines for reporting and responding to a suspected or confirmed account data compromise. This latest version incorporates new investigation fees and non-compliance assessment information. Fees are entirely avoidable if entities cooperate with applicable investigations in a timely fashion.
To meet Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) compliance commitments and maintain the highest standards of system security, Visa will be upgrading the Open File Delivery (OFD) platform to utilize stronger cipher suites, while concurrently decommissioning older and less secure cipher suites effective 30 November 2019. Clients must ensure that their systems are updated to support new requirements in order to successfully connect to the OFD platform once these changes are in effect.
Clients are reminded to ensure all international transactions are correctly classified, processed and reported in accordance with the Visa Rules. Failure to comply with Visa processing requirements may render them subject to non-compliance assessments.
The Visa Smart Debit / Credit Certificate Authority (CA) has extended the expiration date of the 1984-bit CA key. The expiration date of the 1408-bit CA key has not changed.
Download article about Visa Smart Debit/Credit Certificate authority annual key assessment
Visa is reminding clients about changes to acceptance, disclosure and dispute policies for transactions at merchants that offer free trials or introductory promotions as part of an ongoing subscription service. The new policies will enable greater customer recognition, easier cancellation and clearer dispute rights. A flyer is also available now for distribution directly to merchants.
Download article about updated policy for subscription merchants
Visa is updating the rules to streamline requirements for transaction receipts by removing duplication and outdated / unnecessary data elements. The updates will also provide increased flexibility for transactions where receipts are required to be provided.
Download article about updates to transaction receipt requirements
Effective 25 January 2020, Visa will update the non-compliance assessment schedules for general and willful violations, and introduce a new significant violation schedule.
Visa has compiled several processing requirements and reminders for processing 3-D Secure (3DS) 1.0.2 and EMV® 3DS transactions with Visa Secure.
Download the article about Visa Secure processing requirements and reminders
To align with the upcoming revised Payment Services Directive provisions and country requests for updated limits, a number of changes to the Visa Easy Payment Service program are being made in Europe.
To ensure that U.S. EMV® terminals can properly originate transactions from Canada-issued co-badged credit and debit cards, Visa is requiring acquirers to implement changes to ensure immediate interoperability.
To help move the e-commerce ecosystem to full strong customer authentication (SCA) compliance, Visa is making some important changes to help accelerate deployment of new 3-D Secure (3DS) technology. EMV® 3DS 2.2.0 provides key functionality which underpins the move to biometrics, the ability to take advantage of SCA exemptions and accommodates the delivery of a cryptogram in complex merchant use cases such as travel. All issuers, acquirers and merchants are expected to implement 3DS 2.2.0 by 14 September 2020.
Visa is reminding clients that Visa PIN Security Program participants will be required to use a Payment Card Industry (PCI) Qualified PIN Assessor for all on-site PIN assessments beginning 1 October 2019. All on-site PIN assessments beginning on 1 January 2020 and after must validate to version 3 of the PCI PIN security requirements.
The Visa Chargeback Monitoring Program will be renamed as the Visa Dispute Monitoring Program. Visa is also reminding clients of upcoming changes to fraud and dispute volume thresholds.
Visa is expanding its existing internet gambling blocking service to include online transactions for the new Merchant Category Code (MCC) 9406—Government-Owned Lotteries (Non-U.S. region).
Visa has certified LG Pay as a new token requestor in Visa Token Service.
Download article about LG pay certified as a new token requestor
Visa has implemented policies to support its Smart BIN Management strategy of responsible use of Bank Identification Numbers (BINs). This article reinforces the importance of these policies leading up to the April 2022 effective date for Visa clients to support the new eight-digit BIN standard.
Download article about importance of smart BIN management policies
Effective 18 October 2019, parking, electric vehicle charging and card-absent grocery merchants may use estimated authorization and incremental authorization requests.
Clients should update their systems to account for a new electric-vehicle charging merchant category code (MCC).
Acquirers must submit merchant validation reports to Visa by 31 July 2019.
Visa Analytics Platform is launching globally with new application packages and applications.
To enable greater customer recognition, easier cancellation and clearer dispute rights, Visa is updating its rules related to transactions at merchants that offer free trials or introductory offers as part of an ongoing subscription service.
Visa has policies, rules and requirements in place to regulate subscription and “negative option” merchants dating back to 2011, including express, informed consent from customers after required disclosures and a simple cancellation mechanism.
Upon further review of its existing rules, Visa recognizes that free trials or introductory offers that roll into ongoing subscriptions or recurring charges can lead to problems for cardholders and clients, including multimillion-dollar operational cost increases due to high call center volumes, customer complaints, write-offs and card closures / re-issuances. To address these concerns and help provide clarity for all parties, Visa is updating its acceptance, disclosure and cancellation policies effective 18 April 2020.
Additionally, Visa has identified potential solutions to the following pain points around notification, identification and resolution of issues with these transactions:
Subscription Merchant Transaction Policy Updates
The changes are designed to (1) promote an enhanced cardholder experience; (2) enable issuers to clearly identify these transactions; and (3) bring more specificity and clarity to the disputes requirements. With these changes, cardholders will be provided clearer information, enabling them to identify, recognize and take action on subscription transactions, reducing the need for disputes. Specifically, cardholders will benefit from:
The changes apply equally to merchants selling either physical or digital goods and services, if they offer free trials or introductory offers that roll into an ongoing subscription / recurring agreement. There are no new indicators or other changes to these transactions that issuers or acquirers need to cater for.
Download article about Updated Policy for Subscription Merchants
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has published an annex to the security standard for protecting PIN-based transactions on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices. The annex defines security requirements for magnetic-stripe transaction acceptance with no PIN in Software-based PIN Entry on COTS (SPoC) solutions. The date for merchants accepting PIN-based transactions via COTS devices to use or transition to a PCI-validated SPoC solution has been extended to 31 December 2019.
In the 26 July 2018 edition of the Visa Business News, Visa announced the publication of the PCI SPoC security standard, which defines global industry security requirements and testing procedures for securing PIN-based transactions on COTS devices.¹ Due to security risks associated with primary account numbers and PINs on unsecure COTS devices, the standard was originally published to explicitly prohibit the acceptance of magnetic-stripe transactions.
Based on industry feedback and the need for continued support of magnetic-stripe transaction acceptance in some markets, PCI has published the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Software-based PIN Entry on COTS Magnetic Stripe Readers Annex, which defines security requirements for accepting magnetic-stripe transactions without PIN in a SPoC solution. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Software-based PIN Entry on COTS (SPoC) Program Guide has been updated to align with the annex and outlines the elements of SPoC solutions, roles of parties involved in development, solution-testing process and validated solution-listing instructions.
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Visa SPoC Compliance Deadline
In order to support the transition to PCI-approved SPoC solutions, Visa has extended the deadline that requires all merchants accepting PIN-based transactions via COTS devices to use or transition to a compliant, PCI-validated SPoC solution to 31 December 2019.
The publication of the SPoC standard or the SPoC annex does not change any Visa requirement related to hardware PIN-entry devices. All existing Visa rules and requirements continue to apply, including Visa’s Honor All Cards policy. Visit the PCI SSC website for resources for locating PCI-recognized laboratories and validated SPoC solutions.
Visa has updated the Visa Direct Original Credit Transaction (OCT)—Global Implementation Guide. Clients and their partners that originate or receive Visa Direct original credit transactions (OCTs) should review the updated guide for information on how to enable and support services for a variety of use cases.
Visa has updated the Account Funding Transaction (AFT): Processing Guide. Clients and their partners that originate or receive AFTs should review the updated guide for information on how to best support these transactions.
Visa’s International Airline Program allows acquirers to partner with qualifying airline merchants and on-board service providers in any jurisdiction. This helps airline merchants consolidate their acquiring relationships and meet the unique needs of airlines for a comprehensive global acquiring service in all countries where they sell their tickets.
Acquirers are reminded that the correct merchant outlet location must be reflected in the merchant contract and in transaction processing, and that they are only permitted to enter into interchange transactions from countries where they are lawfully entitled to acquire transactions.
Visa has introduced a streamlined Level 3 (L3) testing process when using a Terminal Management System or Electronic Payment Server architecture in the U.S. In addition, Visa is reminding clients of the expiry periods for L1, L2 and L3 Letters of Approval for contact and contactless.
Visa is updating the U.S. activation date for EMV 3-D Secure (formerly 3DS 2.0) to 31 August 2020. This date defines when fraud liability extends to non-participating issuers.
Visa has created a new program guide that contains the rules for participating in Visa Secure using either 3-D Secure (3DS) 1.0.2 or EMV® 3DS.
Visa is publishing a new Visa Direct original credit transaction use case for Earned Wage Access (EWA), a service that enables fintechs to allow employees early access to their earned wages.
Visa will allow payroll service providers in the U.S. to use Visa Direct to facilitate faster small business payroll processing.
Issuers should prepare to support new credential-on-file and e-commerce Token Requestor IDs for Braintree Payment Solutions and IP Solutions International.
Visa has updated the U.S. Quick Chip and Minimum Terminal Configuration Acquirer Device Validation Toolkit (ADVT) Version 7 and the Contactless Device Evaluation Toolkit (CDET) Version 2.3 Use Cases on Visa Online and the Visa Technology Partner website in order to include a new mandatory U.S. CDET Magnetic-Stripe Data (MSD) only test case.
Starting in 2019, the Verified by Visa (VbV) program name will be rebranded to Visa Secure. The Visa Secure badge, combined with descriptive language emphasizing “your online transactions are secure with Visa,” will be the way consumers learn about Visa’s 3-D Secure (3DS) offering.
Existing VbV marks will be replaced with a Visa Secure badge across consumer-facing merchant and issuer channels, while all 3DS authentication screens will simply display the Visa logo.
Visa developed the 3-D Secure standard—currently branded for Visa cardholders as Verified by Visa— to provide merchants and issuers a way to authenticate the cardholder for card-not-present payments. Today, 3DS has become the industry-wide e-commerce authentication standard.
Merchants are encouraged to use the Visa Secure badge and messaging when implementing the enhanced EMV 3DS technology. Starting 1 October 2019, merchants must use the new badge and messaging whenever EMV 3DS technology is used. Guidelines and communication materials are available to merchants via their normal channels.
Visa has extended the dates for implementing a new indicator for card-present and card-absent transactions when merchants defer transaction authorization. A deferred authorization occurs when a merchant cannot complete an authorization at the time of the transaction with the cardholder due to connectivity, systems issues or other limitations, and then later completes the authorization when it is able to do so.
To give issuers information when a deferred authorization takes place and to help Acquirers & merchants obtain more approvals on deferred authorizations, Visa previously announced that it would require merchants and acquirers to identify deferred authorizations by 12 April 2019. However, in response to feedback and to allow more time for clients to prepare their authorization systems, Visa has postponed the previously announced implementation dates for rules pertaining to deferred authorization indicators to April 2019, October 2019 and April 2021.
Beginning 12 April 2019 as optional, and becoming mandatory for all deferred authorization requests by 16 April 2021, an acquirer or merchant that submits a deferred authorization for a card-present or card-absent transaction must both:
Effective 18 October 2019, acquirers must be able to support sending this indicator if a merchant includes it, but will not be required to send it in all deferred authorization requests until 16 April 2021. Issuers are required to be able to receive the deferred authorization indicator effective 12 April 2019.
Effective 19 April 2019, Visa will discontinue certification testing of all 3-D Secure 1.0.2 products and licensing of the specifications.
Clients should update their systems to comply with upcoming changes to floor limits in multiple markets in the Europe region, effective 18 October 2019.
Select U.S. casinos will be able to use original credit transactions to disburse winnings at face-to-face establishments. Effective 18 October 2019, U.S. issuers will be able to receive domestic original credit transactions (OCTs) associated with select casinos that operate face-to-face establishments under Merchant Category Code (MCC) 7995—Betting, including Lottery Tickets, Casino Gaming Chips, Off-Track Betting, and Wagers at Race Tracks.
While MCC 7995 will be enabled by Visa in October 2019, only select face-to-face U.S. casinos and/or associated technology providers will be permitted to process OCTs and only through debit and eligible prepaid cards. Visa will monitor the program and make any necessary adjustments prior to expanding the program to additional participants.
Visa Approved PIN Security Assessors are migrating to a new assessor program managed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). Visa PIN Security Program participants will be required to use a PCI Qualified PIN Assessor (QPA) for all on-site PIN assessments beginning 1 October 2019.
All on-site PIN assessments beginning on 1 January 2020 and after must validate to version 3 of the PCI PIN security requirements.
The PCI SSC, which develops and manages payment card security standards to protect payment card data, has updated two previously published information supplements to provide additional security guidance to address compliance, data security challenges and evolving technology.
Visa encourages all organizations to review the following updated materials and share them with customers, as appropriate:
Information Supplement: Protecting Telephone-Based Payment Card Data, Version 3.0: Discusses fundamental principles associated with applying Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and best practices for securing telephone-based account data in a telephone environment.
Best Practices for Maintaining PCI DSS Compliance, Version 2.0: Provides best practices for maintaining compliance with PCI DSS after an organization has already undergone an initial PCI DSS assessment and successfully achieved compliance.
Effective 1 October 2019, as part of Visa’s ongoing assessment and updates to meet prevailing trends, Visa will apply new thresholds to improve the efficiency of the Visa Fraud Monitoring Program, the Visa Chargeback Monitoring Program and the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program.
To facilitate secure, reliable and accurate payments, the systems and software used as part of the transaction flow must be designed, developed and maintained in a manner that protects the integrity of payment transactions and the confidentiality of all sensitive data that they store, process or transmit.
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has published the new Software Security Framework in order to provide software vendors with updated security requirements and assessment procedures for payment software.
In this initial publication, the Software Security Framework includes two standards:
Both standards are designed for use as part of the PCI Software Security Framework and are intended for software vendors that develop software for the payments industry. Software vendors wishing to validate payment software under the PCI Software Security Framework should use the PCI Secure Software Standard. In addition, software vendors may opt to validate their Secure SLC practices for that payment software using the PCI Secure SLC Standard.
Transition from the Payment Application Data Security Standard
While the PCI Software Security Standards include elements of the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS), the standards represent a new approach for securely designing and developing both existing and future payment applications. The overarching PCI Software Security Framework is designed to support a broader array of payment software types, technologies and development methodologies currently in use and also to support future technologies and use cases.
Visa clients, as well as their agents and merchants, must use only secure, validated payment applications that do not retain prohibited data elements. While the PA-DSS and Software Security Framework is intended for payment software that is sold, distributed or licensed to third parties, payment software that is developed in-house or customized for a single customer can also benefit when the requirements are applied as a best practice.
Effective 13 April 2019, all terminals accepting contactless payments in the U.S. must actively support EMV contactless functionality, and the legacy magnetic stripe data contactless technology should be upgraded.
Effective 14 December 2018, U.S. Debit Test Card #1 (version 2.0), #2 (version 2.0) and #3 (version 3.0) must be used for U.S. Acquirer Device Validation Toolkit (ADVT) and U.S. Contactless Device Evaluation Toolkit (CDET) testing.
Acquirers must submit merchant validation reports to Visa by 31 January 2019. Information on acquirers' compliance status and data security efforts enables Visa to understand how security measures are being adopted across the industry. As a reminder, acquirers must submit their Acquirer Merchant Reporting Template by 31 January 2019.
The Card Acceptance Guidelines for Visa Merchants is a comprehensive manual for all businesses that accept Visa® transactions in the card-present and/or card-absent environment. The purpose of this guide is to provide merchants and their back-office sales staff with accurate, up-to-date information and best practices to help merchants process Visa transactions, understand Visa products and rules, and protect cardholder data while minimizing the risk of loss and fraud.
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.
