All merchant POS (Point of Sale) terminals, credit card processing systems, webpage checkout software, and anywhere a Mastercard card number is accepted or housed, must be 2-series ready by June 2017.
What does this mean?
Bank Identification Numbers (BINs) are the first six-digits of a credit card number, and are fundamental to payments. They identify the issuing institution for the account and ensure that each transaction is routed correctly.
Mastercard® has received an additional range of 2-series numbers to add to the 5-series that are currently used. The 2-series BINs operate in the same way as the 5-series numbers and Mastercard has made changes to their systems to accommodate the new numbers. Banks began issuing 2-series BINs in early 2017.
Merchants should work with their service provider to evaluate their systems to determine whether updates are needed to accept 2-series BIN payments.
Potential implications for merchants
- POS terminals and/or cash register updates
- Educating your employees
- Reporting, processing, and reconciliation
- E-commerce/online checkout
Essential customers, please contact us for support. If you’re not an Essential customer, please feel free to contact us for any questions about the new Mastercard 2-series BINs.