Due to high credit-card demand, the North American banking industry is facing a shortage of account numbers. MasterCard® began devising a fix to satisfy the ever-growing requests in November 2014. Starting in January 2017, it will add 2-series Bank Identification Numbers (BINs) beginning with 2 (222100-272099) to its existing 5 sequence (510000-559999).
This two-part blog series provides key facts and timelines your firm needs to support this mandatory expansion. The first round will help you understand account numbers including BINs, the supplementary range’s features, major transition dates, and E-Complish’s compliant offerings. Then part two will cover the insufficient supply’s origins, important BIN roles, potential upgrade issues for merchants, E-Complish’s payment-processing preparedness, and other inventory shortfall possibilities.
Deciphering Account Numbers
All credit, debit, prepaid, and health savings account (HSA) cards along with some gift, gas, and airline cards feature a standard numerical sequence that contains 16 digits typically. The banking industry uses an organizational method to break every account number down into these four parts:
Major Industry Identifier (MII): One unique initial digit corresponds to every card’s brand. Established examples include these credit-card associations:
- 3: American Express
- 4: Visa
- 5: MasterCard
Country code: Next three digits indicate the issuing bank’s location.
Bank Identification Number (BIN): First six digits including the four above represent the banking institution that supplied the card to a particular accountholder.
Account identifier: Each issuer assigns the following nine digits.
Checksum: An algorithm computes this last single digit to validate the card. It can determine if errors occurred while entering or transmitting the account number.
Upcoming Solution Features
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns BINs. It didn’t have a large enough contiguous succession of numbers in MasterCard’s previously allocated 5 series to meet the expanding need. So it provided the supplemental 50,000 block from availabilities remaining in 2 sequences. That extra run should last 100 years. The credit-card association will continue evaluating its growth and demand, making any more BIN additions and usage changes whenever appropriate or necessary.
Except for their distinctive numerical codes, supplementary and established sequences share all other aspects. All MasterCard-branded BINs offer the same products and features with consistent issuance and acceptance procedures. Without any geographical restrictions, they’re available for global use. Suitable consumer and commercial types span all options including credit, debit, and prepaid cards. Fulfilling both traditional and token functions, the 2 block will continue following the 5 range’s payment-processing method.
Key Migration Dates and Tests
Various industry partners including issuing banks, all existing and new merchants like your company, acquiring financial institutions that process and settle sellers’ credit-card charges, and third-party processors (TPPs) must ensure that their updated systems recognize MasterCard’s 2-series BINs properly.
Significant 2-run migration dates include:
Oct. 14, 2016: MasterCard’s 99 extra BIN ranges added millions more account number combinations while preserving its existing allocation scheme. Self-processing issuers and acquirers along with third-party processors including E-Complish conducted crucial testing to ensure acceptance and readiness before issuers commence new card distribution.
January 2016: Banks will begin issuing new 2-series cards.
June 30, 2017: Like all merchants, your company’s point-of-sale (POS) terminals, related systems, online checkout software, and everywhere you accept or store MasterCard numbers must be ready for 2-series field testing. The card brand also will begin enforcing its compliance program on the last day of the month.
E-Complish’s Compliant Software Suite
Deadlines have the whole industry scrambling to accommodate this major banking-system transformation. Credit-card-processing companies like E-Complish must prepare for this eventuality. This migration and its readiness directive may sound complicated and overwhelming. But luckily for you, our experts have updated our payment solutions to accept this new range seamlessly.
Is E-Complish already your MasterCard processor? No problem! You’re all set. We’ve done the software prep work for you. Just keep processing transactions the way you have been. If you’re shopping for new payment applications, we’ve completed the necessary transition and compliance steps for you. Just pick the programs you need, and we’ll deliver a customized system ready to handle the latest card-acceptance criteria.
According to MasterCard’s mandate, all TPPs must provide abilities for their merchant clients to run tests on their payment systems. Ensuring that your E-Complish platform will accommodate your customers’ 2-series BIN transactions and identify them appropriately as MasterCards on screens and receipts is quick and easy. Just process 2223000048400011 as a test card number.