Mastercard TIC Compliance Deadline Postponed
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about upcoming Visa and Mastercard changes and how they will affect merchants. One of the changes we outlined is related to Mastercard’s Transaction Integrity Class (TIC) program that was to take effect in about six weeks. Failing to comply with this change would significantly increase what merchants pay to process Mastercard transactions, but if you are a software company with payment acceptance capabilities, it would have implications for you too.
Background on Mastercard TIC
TIC is a method that Mastercard uses to evaluate a transaction’s fundamental safety and security and to assess the validity of the card and the cardholder. It has been in place for about four years and involves the issuer returning a two-character code in the authorization response for purchases and cash back transactions.
New Requirement
Mastercard’s plan was to begin requiring the exact TIC code from the transaction authorization to be captured and included in the settlement process in April of this year. Mastercard has since backed-off the April date as many issuers, gateways and POS systems were not prepared for compliance. However, they are recommending that clients continue to work with their vendors to make sure the TIC value is populated in the settlement transaction in order to ensure compliance.
Two Things Software Companies Should Do
Even though the pressure of a looming deadline is off, it’s still a good idea to follow Mastercard’s recommendation of continuing to work toward compliance. That said, we recommend ISVs:
- Contact all gateways and payment partners that are supported in your platform to ensure they are preparing for the new Mastercard TIC requirement. You may need to make programming changes in your own platform to accommodate the enhancement.
- Contact all customers who use payments in your software. It’s pretty common for customers to be unaware or to have questions whenever one of the card brands makes a change like this. Throw a few date changes into the mix, and confusion abounds. A goodwill gesture would be to reach out to all your customers to let them know the April compliance mandate has been removed but that you are continuing to work to ensure you are prepared if and when it is reinstated.
At the very least, you’ll be demonstrating to your customers that you care about them and that you’re staying on top of payment issues that could affect them.
We’ll continue to post updates on new dates and requirements. If you’d like us to alert you when we have updated information, please submit your email address below, and we’ll add you to the list.
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If you would like additional information about Mastercard TIC to share with your customers or if you have questions about compliance requirements, please email me:
bwiltz@windriverfinancial.com
