New Interchange Programs

Visa 11.2.1: New Visa Infinite Interchange Programs 

Visa has clarified US domestic fee descriptor naming conventions for Visa Signature, Visa Signature Preferred, and Visa Infinite credit products. Rates remain unchanged, and new programs and Fee Program Indicators (FPI) will be added. Currently, Signature Preferred and Infinite (Spend-Qualified) products use the same FPI. With this release, new FPIs will be created for Infinite (Spend-Qualified) programs while Signature Preferred will continue using the existing FPIs. The new programs for Visa Infinite (Spend-Qualified) mirror the existing fee programs except they will apply when the Product ID is I^ and the Account Funding Source is C (see Appendix A).

Interchange Program Enhancements

Visa 11.2.1: Changes to Existing Visa Consumer Credit Interchange Fee Program 

Visa is separating Infinite (Spend-Qualified) and Signature Preferred products into their own interchange programs. The existing programs will be renamed to show that they will only apply to Signature Preferred Product Identifications (see Appendix B).

Interchange Rate Changes

Mastercard AN 7034: Revised Intracountry Interchange Rates in the Canada Region 

As part of the April release, with the effective date of May 8, 2023, Mastercard is changing the rates for intracountry interchange in the Canada region (see Appendix C).

Discover Rate Changes for Existing Consumer Credit, Debit Programs, and Commercial Prepaid Programs 

With the April 2023 release, Discover will implement select interchange rate updates for commercial prepaid programs and consumer credit and debit programs (see Appendix D).

Additional Enhancements

Mastercard AN 6022: Introduction and Standardization of Transaction Data Elements 

Mastercard is aligning its systems and preparing for future payment enhancements by standardizing requirements for key transaction data elements. Mastercard is also clarifying, simplifying, and standardizing specification criteria. This includes establishing new subfields to represent data related to the acceptor and service location.

Acquirers must support the new subelements and ensure subfields comply with the new requirements for populating existing data elements. 

Business Impacts 

If the name of the city, state or province, country, and ZIP Code or postal code where the cardholder received the services is different from the location identified by the acceptor names, new data subfields are required.

System Impacts 

TSYS Acquiring Solutions will support the additional data fields in the Draft 256 Data Capture Format.

Mastercard AN 6779: Revising Transaction Type Identifier for Purchase Repayments 

Mastercard is revising the name of the transaction type identifier (TTI) value P10 from Installment-based repayment to Purchase repayment.

Business Impacts 

The description for TTI will be updated.

System Impacts 

TSYS Acquiring Solutions will support the renamed TTI value in the Draft 256 Data Capture Format.

New and Revised Merchant Category Codes 

Visa, Mastercard, and Discover announced new or revised Merchant Category Codes (MCCs). Listed below are the most relevant (others include specific MCCs for hotels and airlines)

Revisions to the TDCC and Descriptions

Discover is updating the Transaction Data Condition codes (TDCC) that are sent in an Authorization Response message field 124 in positions 1 and 2.

Acquirers must include the code received in the settlement message for all US card transactions. The TDCC aids the security and data integrity of a transaction by identifying the applicable payment technology and the cardholder verification method.

If an acquirer submits a TDCC value in the settlement message that does not match the code from the original authorization response message, the transaction might be downgraded.

Business Impacts 

Descriptions and values for TDCCs will be updated.

System Impacts

TSYS Acquiring Solutions will support updates to the TDCCs in the Draft 256 Data Capture Format.

Revisions to the Reclassification Reason Codes 

Discover is revising the Reclassification Reason codes for the Accepted Detail, Card Transactions Record (field 35) of the Acquirer Report Interface. The reclassification descriptions and reasons will be changed for reason codes 09 and 10. Reason code 27 will be added.

Business Impacts

Reclassification Reason codes will be added and updated.

System Impacts 

This is informational and no changes are needed.