Vantiv EXCHANGE January 2013 | 1

Exchange

The statements contained herein are based upon the information available to Vantiv as of the date and time of this bulletin and are subject to change. Not intended for further distribution.

© Copyright 2013 Vantiv. All rights reserved.

January 2013

We are committed to working closely with you to help achieve your business goals. As a part of this commitment,

we closely monitor Network and Association changes and summarize them in the Vantiv Exchange. Following

is the summary of information from American Express®, Discover® Network, MasterCard® Worldwide and Visa®

U.S.A. regarding changes or updates to interchange rates, operating rules and regulations and other changes that

may impact your company. We encourage you to call your Relationship Manager or our Contact Center at the

number located on your monthly statement with any questions you may have regarding this information.

Visa Tax Payment Program to Include Government and Higher Education

The Program: The Visa Tax Payment Program allows registered eligible merchants to assess cardholder fees

on qualifying tax payment transactions.

The Change: Effective November 6, 2012, Visa expanded the Convenience Fee Tax Payment Program to

include other government and higher education merchants. The program has been renamed the Government

and Higher Education Payment Program.

The Impact: The revised program is now available to the following MCCs:

• MCC9222-Fines

• MCC9211-CourtCosts

• MCC9399-MiscellaneousGovernmentServices

• MCC8220-CollegeTuition

• MCC8244-BusinessSchools

• MCC8249-TradeSchools

Merchantsintheabovecategorieswillnowbeabletochargeavariablerateconveniencefeeinface-to-

faceandcard-not-presentpaymentchannels.Visahasalsoremovedtherequirementtochargeaflatfeeon

signature debit transactions. Registration is required for participation in the program.

Requirements: Registering merchants must meet the following requirements:

• ClearlydisclosefeestotheVisacardholderandmeetcardholderfeerequirements(Variablefeesare

permitted)

• AcceptVisaasameansofpaymentinallchannelswherepaymentsareaccepted

In This Edition:– Visa® Tax Payment Program

– Visa® Visa AFD Partial Authorization

– International Interchange

– MasterCard® Processing Integrity Fee

– Discover® No Signature Changes

Vantiv EXCHANGE January 2013 | 2

The statements contained herein are based upon the information available to Vantiv as of the date and time of this bulletin and are subject to change. Not intended for further distribution.

© Copyright 2013 Vantiv. All rights reserved.

• Processallgovernmentandhighereducationandservicefeetransactionsaccordingtotherulesof

the Government and Higher Education Payment Program

• FeaturetheopportunitytopaywithVisaatleastasprominentlyasallotherpaymentmethods

Please contact your Relationship Manager for additional information.

Visa Partial Authorization Requirements ModifiedThe Program: Domestic Automated Fuel Dispenser Merchants who participate in the partial

authorization service must submit an authorization reversal for the difference between the amount

approved in the partial authorization response and the final transaction amount of the cardholder’s

purchase.

The Change: Effective December 13, 2012, Visa will no longer require AFD merchants that participate

in the Visa Partial Authorization Service to submit an authorization reversal for the difference between

the approved partial authorization amount and the final transactions amount.

The Impact: Although participating merchants will no longer be required to submit a reversal for the

difference between the approved partial authorization and final transaction amounts, merchants are still

required to submit an authorization reversal if the cardholder does not complete the AFD transaction.

Visa/MasterCard/Discover International Interchange Rates The Program: Visa and MasterCard have International Interchange fees which Vantiv calculates within

merchants’ daily interchange qualifications.

The Change: Moving forward, these International interchange fees will be assessed monthly on the

service invoice instead of calculated within the daily interchange qualifications.

The Impact:Merchantswillseeadifferenceonthemonthlyserviceinvoicewhichwillnowreflectthese

internationalinterchangefees.TheinterchangebillingmodificationwillbereflectedontheApril2013

Service Invoice for March’s 2013 processing. The Service Invoice descriptors and rates are described

below:

• VisaAcqPOSISA-0.40%

• VisaAcqPOSIAF-0.45%

• MCAcqPOSProgramSupport-0.55%

• MCAcqPOSCrossBorder-0.40%

• DiscoverInternationalProcessingFee-0.40%

• DiscoverInternationalServiceFee-0.55%

Vantiv EXCHANGE January 2013 | 3

The statements contained herein are based upon the information available to Vantiv as of the date and time of this bulletin and are subject to change. Not intended for further distribution.

© Copyright 2013 Vantiv. All rights reserved.

MasterCard Revised CVC2 Validation ProgramThe Program: In2009,MasterCardintroducedtheValidationProgramforU.S.merchants.Whenamerchant

registeredintheprogramprocessesakey-enteredface-to-facetransaction,themerchantmayseektoobtain

cardvalidationcode2(CVC2)insteadofacardimprint.Withrespecttochargebackreasoncode4837(No

Cardholder Authorization), such CVC2 validation is a valid substitute for a card imprint as proof of card presence.

The Change: MasterCard is removing the registration requirement for merchant participation in the CVC2

Validation Program.

The Timing: The change is effective for transactions occurring on or after April 19, 2013.

The Impact:Byeliminatingtheregistrationrequirement,allmerchantswillbeabletoacceptunembossed

cards if the magnetic stripe cannot be read, preventing lost sales for the issuer and merchant. Registration is

stillrequireduntilJanuary15,2013formerchantswhowouldliketoparticipateintheprogrambeforeApril.

Please keep in mind merchants should only use the CVC2 value for authorizations and never record or store

the CVC2 value.

MasterCard Processing Integrity Fee The Program: In 2011, MasterCard implemented a Processing Integrity Fee on transactions where they could

not match an approved authorization to a clearing message or reversal request if all or part of a transaction

wasnotsubmittedforclearing.Thecurrentreversalwindowis24hoursonacard-presentauthorizationand

72hoursonacard-not-presentauthorization.

The Change: MasterCard is increasing the allowable window of reversals for specific T&E merchant category

codes to 20 calendar days from the date of the original authorization, effective April 19, 2013.

The change impacts the following MCCs:

• 3351-3441(CarRentalAgencies)

• 3501-3999(Lodging–Hotels,Motels,Resorts)

• 4411(CruiseLines)

• 7011(Lodging–Hotels,Motels,Resortsnotclassifiedelsewhere)

• 7512(CarRentalAgencynotclassifiedelsewhere)

MasterCard will begin monitoring authorizations with the impacted MCCs in April 2013 and will report to the

acquireranyauthorizationormerchantthatexceedsthenewlimit.Feesfornon-compliantreversalswillbegin

tobeassessedinOctober2013,allowingmerchantstimetoalterprocedures.

Incremental authorizations will be excluded from the monitoring program.

The Impact: Merchants should ensure any approved amount that will not be included in the settled

transaction is reversed by a partial or full reversal within the allowable time frame.

Vantiv EXCHANGE January 2013|4

The statements contained herein are based upon the information available to Vantiv as of the date and time of this bulletin and are subject to change. Not intended for further distribution.

© Copyright 2013 Vantiv. All rights reserved.

Discover No Signature Required Card Sales Limit ChangeThe Program: Discover’s No Signature Required Card Sales Program eliminates the requirement that eligible

merchants obtain a signature under a specified amount.

The Change: Effective April 19, 2013, Discover is increasing the no signature required card sales limit from

$25to$50orlessforeligiblemerchants.

ChipCardtransactionsof$50.00orlessbyeligiblemerchantsdonotrequirethecardholder’ssignatureon

transaction documentation if the merchant obtains a positive authorization response on a Chip Card terminal.

Chargebacks: For No Signature Required Card Sales, merchants operating in the United States are only

required to provide a copy of the transaction receipt upon request by the cardholder.

Retrieval requests or chargebacks received on No Signature Required Sale transactions will require some type

ofdraftfromthemerchant.Failuretorespondtoaretrievalrequestmayresultinanon-reversiblechargeback.

CardPresentCardSalesofmorethan$50.00,includingapplicabletaxes,gratuity,and/orcashover,except

Chip Card transactions, are not eligible for treatment as No Signature Required Card Sales and are subject to

dispute if merchants fail to obtain the cardholder’s signature on the transaction documentation.

Exclusions: The following MCCs are not eligible to participate in the Discover No Signature Required Card

Sales Program:

• 4829MoneyTransfer–Non-FinancialInstitution

• 6010MemberFinancialInstitution–ManualCashDisbursements

• 6011MemberFinancialInstitution—AutomatedCashDisbursements

• 6050QuasiCash–MemberFinancialInstitution

• 6051QuasiCash–Non-FinancialInstitution

• 6531PaymentServiceProvider–MoneyTransferforaPurchase

• 6532PaymentServiceProvider–MemberFinancialInstitution–PaymentTransaction

• 6533PaymentServiceProvider–Merchant–PaymentTransaction

• 6534MoneyTransfer–MemberFinancialInstitution

• 7995Betting(e.g.,lotterytickets,OTB)