Visa reminds clients of the importance of the agent registration programme, which provides Visa with visibility into the service providers in the payment ecosystem.
Visa is updating the eligibility requirements for retail and supermarket credit transactions for merchants to qualify for incentive interchange programmes.
Visa is updating the eligibility requirements for retail and supermarket credit transactions for merchants to qualify for incentive interchange programmes.
Visa encourages all organisations to review the new guidance document published by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council and share it with customers, as appropriate.
Visa is clarifying requirements to ensure that U.S. EMV terminals can properly originate transactions from Canada-issued co-badged credit and debit cards. It is critical that vendors implement these changes to ensure interoperability.
Effective 14 April 2018, issuer fraud-chargeback rights for card-absent transactions that are approved with a Card Verification Value 2 mismatch response will be removed for all transactions in all regions.
Visa is moving away from the Visa payWave brand name for Visa’s contactless solution.
In keeping with Visa’s ongoing efforts to provide greater flexibility for clients, Visa is removing the requirement to use Visa payWave branding on cards and on merchant terminals effective 1 February 2018. This change applies to AP and LAC only – payWave is currently optional on cards and terminals in all other regions.
Visa will no longer approve new card designs or merchant/terminal signage using the payWave brand as of 1 November 2018. Visa will not require existing cards or terminal signage to be replaced as a result of this brand change.
The future state is focused on contactless payments with Visa, and the guiding language at point-of-sale for consumers is “tap to pay here” to facilitate the transaction.
Visa is implementing new requirements for card present transactions when merchants defer transaction authorisations.
When their POS authorisation systems are offline and cannot process card-present transactions, merchants often complete the transaction with the cardholder and defer the authorisation until their POS authorisation systems are back online. Currently there is no requirement for merchants to identify a deferred authorisation. In some instances, this can cause confusion for issuers.
To improve authorisation processing, effective October 2018 optional and April 2019 mandatory, Visa is implementing new rules pertaining to deferred authorisation indication and processing timeframes.
This article originally ran in the 25 May 2017 (summary below) edition of the Visa Business News. It is being republished, as the effective date of 31 December 2017 has been postponed to 31 January 2018. Please use this version of the article going forward.
A rule to clarify the requirement that merchants process sales tax rebates as original credit transactions will take effect 13 April 2019.
Many governments allow tax-free shopping for foreign travellers. Merchants, acquirers and solution providers collaborate to offer sales tax / value-added tax (VAT) recovery to foreign travellers when they leave the country with purchased goods. To ensure this practice is conducted according to the Visa Rules, Visa is mandating that merchants:
Visa is clarifying the existing merchant processing rules to ensure acquirers and service providers that offer sales tax recovery service can place the funds on the cards.
Visa is providing clients additional time to transition to Acquirer Device Validation Toolkit Version (ADVT) 7.0 from ADVT Version 6.1.1.
In September 2017, Visa announced the release of a new version of the Acquirer Device Validation Toolkit (ADVT) – ADVT Version 7.0 – and informed users that they had until 31 January 2018 to upgrade from the previous version of the toolkit – ADVT Version 6.1.1. Due to delays in certifying third-party test tools, Visa is allowing clients to use ADVT Version 6.1.1 until 31 May 2018.
Effective 1 June 2018, use of ADVT Version 6.1.1 will not be permitted. Instead, users will be required to obtain a copy of ADVT Version 7.0, either through a third-party test tool provider or via the Visa Mobile Card Personalisation App/Utility Card.
Visa has created standards to support the non-standard blind notch card shape for visually impaired cardholders.
Effective immediately, issuers may develop and issue the non-standard blind notch card shape for visually impaired cardholders. Visa has created standards in support of these non-standard card shapes that allow for a cut-out notch to assist cardholders in determining the direction in which the card is to be inserted into a payment terminal at the point of sale.
To increase security for Verified by Visa (VbV) transactions, Visa is requiring TLS version 1.2 to connect to all VBV hardware. Clients may need to make changes to their VbV infrastructure to meet the new security requirements.
In the 4 February 2016 edition of the Visa Business News, Visa announced support of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) bulletin on migrating from Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and early versions of Transport Layer Security (TLS) on all Verified by Visa (VbV) endpoints. Version 3.2 of the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) was released in April 2016 and now requires all endpoints stop the use of SSL and early versions of TLS.
To ensure Visa meets its compliance commitments for PCI, Visa is requiring that all VbV merchant server plug-in and access control server providers that connect to VbV production infrastructure, including the Visa directory server and the authentication history server, meet the following requirements by the specified date:
A new 3-D Secure Protocol and Core Functions Specification v2.1.0 can be downloaded from EMVCo’s website.
3-D Secure is a messaging protocol that allows the merchant, card issuer and consumer to exchange data during an eCommerce transaction for consumer authentication purposes.
EMVCo has released 3-D Secure 2.0 Protocol and Core Functions Specification Version 2.1.0 and Bulletin 196. Bulletin 196 provides updates, clarification and errata that are incorporated into the October 2017 version 2.1.0 specification. The new 3-D Secure 2.0 specification and Bulletin 196 are available to the general public from the EMVCo website.
Visa allows debt repayment to occur on debit and prepaid cards in all regions. In addition, debt repayment rules will be refined in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and Europe.
Visa is expanding the use of debit and prepaid cards for debt repayment. The following rules will take effect in 2018.
Effective from 14 April 2018:
Effective from 13 October 2018, the debt repayment rules will be refined in the Europe region.
Debt Defined
The Visa Rules define debt as money owed by one party (debtor) to another party (creditor), including the obligation to repay money in connection with the following:
According to the Visa Rules, the following are not treated as debt:
Additional Requirements
For additional requirements, including changes for existing markets in Canada, Europe and the US regions, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, refer to the October publication of Visa Rules found on Visa.com.
The Dynamic Currency Conversion Compliance Programme now includes European acquirers. The Visa Rules and the International Transactions Guide have been updated to provide additional information about regulations, best practices and compliance procedures.
In the 1 September 2016 edition of the Visa Business News, Visa introduced new rules related to credential-on-file transactions, including merchant disclosure requirements and transaction identifier requirements went into effect for merchants and acquirers on 14 October 2017.
However, based on stakeholder feedback, and after assessing market readiness and taking into account the holiday season system freeze, Visa will extend the time to make the necessary system changes until 30 April 2018.
While the rule is still effective as of 14 October 2017, Visa will not take any compliance action or assess non-compliance assessments to non-compliant entities prior to 30 April 2018. Entities that comply with the rule by 30 April 2018 will not be required to submit a waiver request to Visa.
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 will be retired.
Visa has released a new Android-based mobile app that combines the ability to personalise chip test cards for various testing toolkits, including the Acquirer Device Validation Toolkit, Visa Contactless Device Evaluation Toolkit, Global Host Test Cards, and other specialised test cards. This new app requires the use of a mobile handset with near-field communication capability, as well as a Visa-supplied VMCP Utility Card.
Version 7.0 of the Acquirer Device Validation Toolkit and Version 2.3 of the Contactless Device Evaluation Toolkit have now been released by Visa to third-party test tool providers. In the coming weeks, Visa will begin working with these providers to ensure test tools are available that meet the requirements of these newly released toolkit versions. An updated Version 4.3.0 of the Visa payWave Test Tool is also available from the tool vendor for use in the Europe region.
The Visa Smart Debit/Credit (VSDC) Certificate Authority 1152-bit key will expire on 31 December 2017. After its expiration and no later than 1 July 2018, this key must be removed from VSDC terminals. Each Visa Smart Debit / Credit (VSDC) or Visa contactless card that supports Offline Data Authentication (ODA) or Offline Enciphered PIN must contain an Issuer Public Key (IPK) Certificate that is signed by a VSDC Certificate Authority (CA) private key and provided to the issuer by the VSDC CA. These keys are validated by VSDC terminals using the associated public key. In order to ensure that expired keys are no longer used at terminals, Visa requires that only valid, non-expired public keys be loaded into VSDC terminals.
Effective from 14 April 2018, issuer fraud-chargeback rights for US domestic card-absent transactions that are approved with a card verification value mismatch response will be removed to align the US with similar practices in AP, Canada, CEMEA and Europe.
Effective immediately, Visa is cancelling minor unit currency changes for the Icelandic króna that were to take effect with the October 2017 VisaNet Business Enhancements release. Clients and processors that have already changed the minor units in their processing systems must revert those changes.
To help acquirers, POS partners and value-added re-sellers migrate to quick Visa Smart Debit/Credit contactless solutions, Visa is providing implementation and testing best practices.
Visa is requiring acquirers to ensure that their US fuel merchants in areas identified as high-fraud geographies include Address Verification Service postcode information in all automated fuel dispenser authorisation messages.
Visa will partner with Visa Digital Enablement Programme participants, including issuer-branded and third-party wallet providers compliant with the Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method (CDCVM) Requirements and Best Practices, to prioritise the CDCVM for mobile contactless payment transactions.
Visa reminds acquirers that they must support the correct version of Visa Contactless Payment Specification or EMV equivalent.
About the CDCVM
In addition to signing a receipt or entering a PIN on a merchant’s PIN pad, a contactless payment allows cardholders to verify that they are the legitimate user on the consumer’s own device via the CDCVM, which offers the following benefits to consumers and merchants:
This article originally ran in the 25 May 2017 edition of the Visa Business News. It is being republished, as the original effective date of 17 August 2017 has been postponed to 31 December 2017.
Please refer to below to summary 25 May 2017 for further details.
To support US region and US territory transactions initiated with the Visa US Common Debit application identifier, Visa will require the printing of the application label or an enhanced descriptor instead of “Visa” when the network is not known at the time a receipt is generated for new terminals and existing terminals.
Effective from 14 October 2017 for new terminals and effective from 14 October 2018 for existing terminals, Visa will clarify its card network name on receipts requirement in the US region and US territories when the Common Debit application identifier (Common AID) is selected and when the network is not known at the time the receipt is generated.
Merchants may need to adjust their terminals and receipt-generation logic accordingly.
As Visa continually monitors network intrusions involving service providers (re-breaches of merchant payment environments and skimming incidents involving POS device overlays), we are alerting clients and entities of their obligations to investigate and immediately report all data compromise events.
Visa will introduce a new eCommerce Enabler use case with AsiaPay to accelerate the deployment of Visa tokens to eCommerce merchants.
Effective from 14 April 2018, the Visa Payables Automation (VPA) platform will begin supporting a secure fax delivery method for issuers to validate their customer’s Visa card to a lodging merchant (e.g. hotel).
The Visa Rules will be updated to allow provision of an issuer VPA-generated fax or electronically delivered form for the lodging merchant to accept the virtual card, and to allow the virtual card to serve as compelling evidence in the event of chargebacks under Reason Code 81—Fraud: Card-Present Environment and Reason Code 83–Fraud: Card-Absent Environment.
Visa is postponing the implementation date for clients to support purchase return authorisation messages on credit vouchers/purchase returns and introducing a phased rollout of the requirement for merchants.
New Merchant Date Requirements:
Merchants with the largest return volumes must send authorisation messages on credit vouchers/purchase returns effective with the October 2018 VisaNet Business Enhancements release. This extends the time requirement from April 2018 to October 2018 for merchants with the largest return volumes. Merchants with the following Visa Purchase Return volumes are included in this first phase:
| Region | Annualisationed Visa Purchase Return Volume Minimum |
|---|---|
| AP | USD 1 million |
| Canada | USD 5 million |
| CEMEA | USD 1 million |
| Europe | USD 5 million |
| LAC | USD 1 million |
| U.S. | USD 10 million |
Effective with the April 2019 VisaNet Business Enhancements release, all remaining merchants in all regions will be required to send an authorisation on a credit voucher/purchase return. This extends the time requirement from April 2018 to April 2019 for all remaining merchants.
Please note the following:
To address the growing number of card-not-present (CNP) compromises and accelerate case processing, effective from 14 October 2017, Visa will modify the Global Compromised Account Recovery Programme to include operating expense recovery for CNP account data compromises and eliminate incremental fraud recovery.
In May 2012, Visa consolidated its regional account data compromise recovery programmes into the Global Compromised Account Recovery (GCAR) Programme, which is a loss-allocation programme designed to balance the needs of Visa clients following a large-scale account data compromise event. It provides a fair and efficient process to help issuers recover a portion of the estimated incremental fraud and operating expenses associated with the account data compromise event and establishes certain limits on potential acquirer liability under the Visa Rules.
Visa has updated the ‘Visa Global Brand Protection Programme Guide’ to improve programme effectiveness and help acquirers minimise risk presented by merchants selling illegal or brand-damaging goods and services.
Visa is providing an advance copy of the Visa Rules related to its previously announced Stored Credential Transaction Framework updates.
Additional information found in the April 2017 announcement Stored Credential Transaction Framework Clarifications and Mandates
Best practices are published on Visa.com https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/support-legal/documents/stored-credential-transaction-framework-vbs-10-may-17.pdf
New or upgraded acceptance devices must make all merchant-supported card acceptance interfaces for Visa transactions available to the cardholder when a transaction is initiated.
Visa is providing an overview of brute-force attacks and best practices on how merchants and clients can identify and mitigate them. Issuers, acquirers and merchants are ultimately responsible for preventing this type of attack.
A brute-force attack is a trial-and-error method used by fraudsters to obtain, within seconds, payment card information such as an account number, card expiration date, PIN or Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2), as well as a user password for online account access. In a brute-force attack, automated software commonly known as a “botnet” is used as a downloader or a credential-collection tool that generates a large volume of consecutive guesses of account data.
Best Practices for Merchants:
Merchants use different criteria in their fraud-prevention strategies than issuers or acquirers. Merchants’ risk priorities are based on product type, history of chargebacks, delivery time for goods in the retail environment, time to departure in the airline industry, etc. Therefore, Visa recommends all merchants consider the following best practices:
|
Process |
Recommendation |
|---|---|
Real-time fraud detection |
|
Payment gateway |
|
Front-end controls |
|
Analytics |
|
To ensure Verified by Visa programme eligibility, Visa will require that airline transactions booked through travel agencies include the name of the airline in the authentication message.
Effective from 14 October 2017, to ensure airline transactions purchased through a travel agency can qualify for Verified by Visa (VbV) programme benefits (including liability protection), travel agencies that use VbV must include the airline name in the VbV authentication message when an airline is the merchant of record in authorisation.
More information at https://usa.visa.com/run-your-business/small-business-tools/payment-technology/verified-by-visa.html
Effective from 17 August 2017, a new local eCommerce regulation published by the Banking Regulations and Supervision Agency (BRSA) will require Turkish issuers to obtain consent from their cardholders to enable their cards to perform eCommerce transactions.
In cases where the cardholders have not yet given their consent, issuers are required to decline ecommerce transactions performed with these cards. Visa suggests certain actions be taken by the Turkish issuers and all global acquirers to address the potential impacts. Examples include actions such as using decline response “Transaction Cannot Be Completed: Violation of Law” when declining an eCommerce transaction on a card that has not received consent for this type of transaction from the cardholder.
Acquirers may also have their merchants customise their messages for Turkey-issued cards when they are declined with ‘Transaction Cannot Be Completed: Violation of Law.’ They may suggest cardholders contact their issuing banks to enable eCommerce transactions.
Effective from 1 October 2017, Visa will update its merchant and acquirer level fraud and chargeback monitoring programmes to improve the efficiency of the Visa Chargeback Monitoring Programme (VCMP), update the VCMP reimbursement policy, and restrict the number of disputes that an account number can contribute to a programme identification.
Effective 14 October 2017, card-absent taxi service transactions may use an estimated authorisation request and an incremental authorisation request. These authorisations will be valid for the same day.
Separately, Visa will also reduce the maximum amount of an aggregated transaction in the card-absent environment to USD 15 for all regions.
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has revised the implementation date for its Key Bundling requirement.
In December 2014, Version 2.0 of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) PIN Security Requirements introduced a requirement: 18-3, Key Bundling. The requirement, sometimes referred to as “key blocks” or “key bundling”, greatly improved the protection of symmetric keys that are shared among payments system participants to protect PINs and other sensitive data.
Effective from 1 January 2018, encrypted symmetric keys must be managed in structures called key blocks. The key usage must be cryptographically bound to the key using accepted methods.
More information at https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/partner-with-us/documents/key-bundling-effective-date-change.pdf
Visa is clarifying the definition of and requirements for its Stored Credential Transaction framework, including mandates to identify initial storage and subsequent usage of payment credentials. Visa is also clarifying the definition and identifiers for Unscheduled Credential-on-File transactions.
Growth in digital commerce, together with the emergence of new business models, has increased the number of transactions where a merchant or its agent, a payment facilitator or a staged digital wallet operator uses cardholders’ payment credentials (i.e. account details) that they previously stored for future purchases. Effective with the October 2017 VisaNet Business Enhancements release, merchants and acquirers must use certain data values in the authorisation message.
Best practices are published on Visa.com https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/support-legal/documents/stored-credential-transaction-framework-vbs-10-may-17.pdf
The PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) and Visa recognise that expired devices are more vulnerable to compromise and may contribute to the theft of cardholder and PIN data. Effective from 30 April 2017, Payment Card Industry PIN Entry Devices Version 2.x security approval will expire.
More information at PCI Security Standards.org https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/20170410_PCISSC_Bulletin_on_the_expiration_of_the_approval_of_PTS_POI_v2_devices.pdf
The announced VCR implementation date was October 2017 initially. In response to client feedback, and to help ensure the readiness of stakeholders around the world, Visa has adjusted the VCR implementation date to coincide with the April 2018 VisaNet Business Enhancements release.
Learn more about dispute basics on Visa.com https://usa.visa.com/support/small-business/dispute-resolution.html
The Visa Rules will be updated to allow issuers to hold funds for Visa debit and prepaid card-absent, lodging, vehicle rental and cruise line transactions for up to seven business days.
To better manage holds on cardholder funds, effective 21 July 2017, Visa will update the Visa Rules to allow issuers to hold funds for up to seven business days for Visa debit and prepaid transactions in the card-absent environment, or at merchants in the lodging, vehicle rental and cruise line segments.
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 minimising the risk of loss from fraud.
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 Authorisation 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 authorisation 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, authorisation 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 11 August 2016. Prior to that, announcements were communicated via Visa Europe Member Letter.