Mastercard Announces Expansion of 2-Series Cards

Is Your Business Ready to Accept Mastercard 2-Series Cards?

For merchants that accept credit cards, it is typical that a credit card number that starts with the number five represents Mastercard. Well, after decades of this practice, Mastercard recently announced its expansion to Mastercard 2-series cards to keep up the rapid pace of issuing credit cards to consumers.

The 2-Series Explained

The payments industry is more complex than ever. With new devices and technologies emerging in the payments world, the industry’s supply of Bank identification numbers (BINs) is reaching its current capacity and card issuers are facing a change to accommodate the growth of credit card use.

According to thebalance.com, BINs not only identify the credit card issuer but ensure that a transaction is routing properly and are instrumental in making a transaction complete. BINS also communicate bank information, products and benefits, account validity, and the amount of credit still available on a card.

Every credit card brand – VISA, Mastercard, Discover, American Express – has their own unique BIN series that identifies the bank the money is being transferred from. Mastercard announced its expansion to 2-series cards and they will operate in the same way as the existing 5-series cards. The new 2-series numbers range from 222100 to 272099, according to Mastercard.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

In June 2017, Mastercard began to select merchants at random to partake in testing that Mastercard is conducting regarding the rollout of 2-series cards. The testing phase is still in progress and your business could be called upon by Mastercard to participate.

Mastercard expects merchants to be responsible for upgrading their equipment or software to accommodate the rollout or they could face losing support or incur fines, according to Mastercard.

Businesses accepting online payments should verify their systems are updated so card-type recognition correctly identifies MasterCard 2-series cards. This means that when the first few numbers of a card have been entered, the system auto-selects the card type. If this fails, the customer’s card may be rejected.

Is Your Business Ready to Accept Mastercard 2-Series Cards?

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