All Spring 2023 Network Updates

SPRING 2023 RELEASE GUIDE

The card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, etc.) introduce and make changes to their rules and mandates throughout the year. Many of these changes come twice per year—spring and fall.

The network updates typically include fee introductions or fee changes, new mandates, new features, or updates to existing features. The changes can be broad in nature, and may include updates such as mandates to comply with new regulations; implementing new fees; or requiring merchants to use schemes like 3DS 2.0 to help reduce fraud.

While many of the updates require no action for merchants, some do require integration changes or force adoption of services. Additionally, some of the updates carry new or changed fees.

Braintree teams have worked to identify the key updates for Spring 2023, and we have provided information about these updates below. We have called out the type of update (fee change, mandate, new feature/update), which network the update comes from, and the relevant market(s).

— The Information Contained In This Document Is Accurate As Of March 31st, 2023 And Is Provided For Informational Purposes, Is Subject To Change, And May Not Apply To All Merchants Or Transactions. —

KEY SPRING 2023 NETWORK RELEASES AT A GLANCE (click below to jump to specific update)

Updates for all networks

What is the Icelandic Krona changes update?

NEW FEATURE/ UPDATE | ALL | GLOBAL

Visa and Mastercard will be removing the minor units for the Iceland Krona (from 2 minor units today—that is, a currency with two numbers after a decimal point to 0 minor units).

note

Note: While Visa and Mastercard are expected to make this change on April 15th, 2023, we recommend that merchants stop accepting minor units by April 10th, 2023, to ensure their transactions are not impacted.

Mastercard Network Updates

What is the new Digital Enablement Fee update?

FEE CHANGE | Mastercard | CANADA

Mastercard will introduce the Mastercard Digital Enablement Fee to support enhancements to fraud, safety, and security in the payments ecosystem on March 13, 2023. As part of the introduction of the new fee, Mastercard will retire certain existing Card Not Present fees.

The fee will be applied at 0.02% on all card not present authorizations with a minimum billing of $0.02 USD and a maximum of $0.20 USD per transaction.

What is the new interchange program for APAC fee change?

FEE CHANGE | Mastercard | APAC

Mastercard is introducing a lower interchange rate for commercial large ticket cross-border transactions that may reduce the overall cost associated with accepting the transaction.

To qualify for the program, merchants must meet all the following qualifying criteria. All transactions must be:

• Greater than $10,000 USD
• Card Not Present (CNP)
• Invoiced in USD and settlement with Mastercard must also be in USD. However, a Bank Identification Number (BIN) can be in any currency.
• Non-travel and entertainment (T&E) spend categories only.
• Cross-border and intraregional Asia/Pacific region
• Issuer country not Korea
• Restricted to B2B acceptance enablers who have registered in Mastercard's Business Payment Aggregator Program (BPAP).
  • A BPA is a Merchant of Record and an entity accepting the card transactions on-behalf of an end Supplier.

What is the Standardization of transaction data elements mandate?

MANDATE| Mastercard | GLOBAL

In April and June 2023, Mastercard will be introducing new service location data fields for clearing messages (April 2023) and authorization messages (June 2023). These new fields help add details around where the transaction took place and will provide customer service information to cardholders.

This mandate will require merchants that move to provide more detailed information about their actual transaction location. The current expectation is that merchants do not need to be ready for this mandate just yet and as such is provided as information regarding a future update.

Reference the tables in the appendix for information about the new fields.

What are the Revised Standards for Europe Region Final Authorization Clearing Submission Acceleration?

MANDATE| Mastercard | EUROPE

Beginning May 22, 2023, Mastercard is requiring that merchant processing in Europe must submit the clearing record for each transaction authorized as a final authorization within three calendar days of the authorization approval date. This is an adjustment down from the current seven calendar days timeline currently in effect. This mandate does not apply to estimated/ incremental authorization transactions.

Visa Network Updates

What is the new Account Verification Fee update?

FEE CHANGE | VISA | CANADA

Effective April 1, 2023, Visa will introduce and implement a new fee for account verification messages to establish consistent pricing globally. Account verification provides additional data points to help protect against fraud associated with invalid or misused credentials. The new fee will be $0.01 USD Per Domestic Account Verification and $0.02 USD Per Foreign Account Verification.

What is the Estimated and Incremental Authorization fee update?

FEE CHANGE | VISA | GLOBAL

From April 17th, 2023, Visa will expand the eligibility of estimated and incremental authorization to all MCCs and will begin charging for all approved estimated and incremental authorizations:

Estimated authorizations occur when an authorized amount may be different from a settled amount. Incremental authorizations occur when the final amount of a transaction is unknown, and an additional authorization occurs following an estimated authorization to adjust the original authorization amount.

Other than the new fee, there are no changes to the existing fields, processing rules for estimated and incremental authorizations, or interchange fee programs. Certain transactions are excluded, including account funding transactions (AFT), installment transactions, advance payment transactions, manual cash disbursement transactions, ATM cash disbursement transactions, Quasi-cash transactions, cryptocurrency transactions, and recurring transactions.

What is the Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) pricing change fee change?

FEE CHANGE | VISA | U.S. AND EUROPE

Starting April 1, 2023, Visa will be introducing a new authorization fee for Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2). CVV2 is the three-digit security code primarily used in card-not-present transactions as an additional method to validate the cardholder and the card's presence during a transaction.

Visa will charge $0.0025 per CVV2 result when an M (match) or N (no match) result is provided. The fee will not be incurred when the CVV2 is unverified, a result is not returned to an acquirer due to error, 3DS is successful, or the authorization is a zero-amount account verification message.

What is the Non-Domestic Currency Settlement fee change?

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EMEA

Beginning in April 2023, the existing Visa Non-Domestic Currency Settlement Volume Fee in Europe will increase from 0.02% to 0.05%. This fee applies to transactions that are not domestic where the currency used is not the domestic currency of the country in which the transaction has taken place.

What is the Secure Credential Framework Will Be Expanded in Europe change?

FEE CHANGE | VISA | EUROPE

Effective October 1, 2023, Visa will introduce a new fee for domestic and intraregional ecommerce primary account number (PAN)-approved authorizations processed without Visa EMV Payment Tokens or Visa Secure.

What is the Visa Marketplace Reporting mandate?

MANDATE | VISA | GLOBAL

From April 15, 2023, Visa will require that all merchant participants in the Visa Marketplace Program include additional indicators for transactions that are generated by retailers in a different country than the marketplace and card-issuing country. Specifically, all clearing records associated with domestic marketplace transactions completed with a foreign marketplace retailer must include:

• Marketplace Location
• Marketplace Name
• Merchant Category Code
• Foreign Retailer Indicator (new field)
• Business Identification Number (new field)

If not complete, Visa will assess a new, incremental, manual reporting per-transaction fee of 0.10% for foreign retail volume reported without the indicators in place.

What is the Address Verification Service update?

NEW FEATURE/ UPDATE | VISA | GLOBAL

Visa will simplify and streamline Address Verification Service (AVS) processing by discontinuing redundant result codes. By eliminating certain codes, Visa will be able to clearly identify if AVS was performed. The codes bolded will no longer be returned and there is no impact to AVS fee.

Values and current descriptions highlighted in RED. in the table below are changing:

What is the Account Verification Messages update?

NEW FEATURE/ UPDATE & FEE CHANGE | VISA | GLOBAL

Visa introduced Account Name Inquiry functionality to allow account name inquiries in account verification requests in April 2022. Visa is now enhancing the account name inquiry functionality to allow matching to also be performed on the first, middle, and last names separately, as well as a full name match result based on the combination of first, middle, and last name. To support this change Visa will introduce:

• Last Name Account Match Decision
• Middle Name Account Match Decision
• First Name Account Match Decision

In addition, Visa will rename Account Name Match Decision to Full Name Account Match Decision.

Effective April 2023, if you opt to use this service, a $0.05 fee will apply to each usable result. Systemic billing for this fee will be available starting in June 2023. Effective April 2024, this fee will increase to $0.10. Using this service in conjunction with the $0.00 auth could provide benefits in the form of reduced fraud.