Visa's Numerics Initiative

The electroniﬁcation of payments is more successful than ever anticipated. To address the industry shortage in supply, the International Organization of Standards (ISO) has expanded the length of issuing BINs from 6 to 8 digits. Visa is supporting this change to fuel innovation of the payment ecosystem.

Eﬀective with the April 2022 business release

Acquirers and processors (issuer and acquirer) must support the new 8-digit BIN standard
Visa will only assign any newly requested issuing BINs as 8-digit
Visa is allowing issuers the discretion to expand any or all of their current issuing BINs to 8 digits and to set their own timeline for the expansion
Visa will reclassify Acquiring BINs as Acquiring IDs and maintain the 6-digit length

How expanded BIN length may aﬀect you

Acquirers that use the ﬁrst 6 digits of the PAN to route transactions may experience broad impacts across transaction processing.

These may include updates to routing logic, processing logic and applicable tables in order to accommodate the new 8-digit BINs.

Additionally, the issuing BIN can be used to identify various product types, such as:

Commercial
Beneﬁts (e.g., Flex Spending Account)
Installments

Processors that use the ﬁrst 6 digits of the PAN to route transactions may experience broad impacts across transaction processing. This could include disruptions to product identiﬁcation, service eligibility and authorization parameters—and reporting and accounting processes.

Merchants may experience impacts at the point of sale—including hardware, terminal software and BIN tables.

Without accounting for the new 8-digit issuing BIN standard merchants will experience a disruption to many common POS transactions.

Service Providers that use the ﬁrst 6 digits of the PAN for their services may experience a number of impacts in the back-end systems including transaction processing, issuing product management, cardholder servicing, ATM, merchant servicing and disputes, fraud management, and data warehouse and reporting.

If the new 8-digit issuing BIN standard is not adopted by the deadline, transaction processes may fail, and services provided to their clients may be disrupted.

Issuers may see a number of impacts to their business and to the payments ecosystem.

If clients are not ready to receive the new 8-digit issuing BIN for new BIN assignments, they may not be able to take advantage of new product innovations and may see a loss in operational eﬃciencies.

Some examples of issuing BIN usage in processing:

Use issuing BIN as a proxy for product.
Set authorization parameters based on issuing BIN (e.g., number of transactions, daily maximum amount).
Include issuing BIN in business processing rules, such as eligibility for products or services.

Issuing BIN is used in downstream systems and processes, including branch systems, online banking, mobile applications, e-Wallet, and new account acquisition.

Numerics Initiative action steps

We encourage clients to take action sooner rather than later and plan now for changes that can aﬀect their back-oﬃce systems—both processing and downstream.

1. Review

Visa partnered with Deloitte to create a report that highlights client impacts across globally representative clients. This report provides insights on how to start your assessment.

Download the Impact Assessment Discovery Interview Findings report

2. Assess

Launch your Numerics program and leverage the questionnaires to conduct a broad discovery and impact assessment. Partners and vendors should be a part of this process.

3. Implement

Finalize and test your changes prior to launch. Ensure your partners are ready to handle 8-digit BINs.

Visa clients and partners can learn more at Visa Online

Not a Visa client? Contact your acquirer or processor for more details.

Resources to get you started

Since 2015, Visa has been preparing our clients to support the numerics expansion. We encourage our clients to more actively manage their BIN portfolio now, in preparation for future opportunities. Check out some of our resources below to begin your planning today.

Numerics Initiative action steps

What you need to be doing now to prepare.

Frequently asked questions

Download FAQ

Together, we are innovating the payment ecosystem

The ongoing evolution of digital payment products and form-factors will increase the necessity of our collective agility and speed to market. The continued advancement of our clients, partners and competitors empowers all of us to move into the next generation of digital payments, together.

Fuels evolution of the payment ecosystem

Encourages further digitization of the payment landscape

Supports client readiness for the future

Get ready for April 2022

The 8-digit BIN expansion is coming. Contact your Visa representative for more information about what you can do to prepare now.