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Learn more about the VGS Card Attributes with PAN Lookup, and how it gives merchants all the information, without the PCI compliance liability.
Contact UsWhen It Comes to Card Attributes, PAN Lookups Go Further than BIN Lookups
With VGS, merchants can go beyond BIN lookups and use PANs to access card attributes that drive more accurate insights and optimize payment processes.
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Situation Today
Merchants work with a BIN lookup and use sophisticated BIN mapping logic for fraud prevention, loyalty offers, routing decisions to increase auth rates, risk management, and more.
Merchants, especially for Card-Not-Present (CNP) transactions, generally do not have the full PAN - their PSPs store that for PCI compliance.
CNP merchants store cards in the 6+4 format. That is the first 6 digits of the card (the BIN) in addition to the last 4 (personal identifier).
...And the Gaps.
Missing Data
BIN lookups aren't sufficient, and fields are missing that would improve decision quality.
Changing BIN Requirements
Issuers are rapidly moving to 8+ digit BINs, which merchants cannot accommodate without additional PCI compliance requirements.
Incomplete Information
Using 6-digit BINs in an 8+ digit world will lead to inaccurate data and a sudden loss of data fidelity.
More Card Attributes = More Strategic Insights
VGS facilitates PAN lookups that go beyond BINs to deliver a complete Card Attributes data set.
A PAN Lookup maximizes the card attributes merchants can access, making for stronger business decisions on needle-movers like the currency, exchange rate, debit routing networks, and gaming payouts.
Where BIN Lookup Stops, PAN Lookup Begins
CARD ATTRIBUTE
6 DIGIT BIN LOOKUP
PAN LOOKUP1
Network (I.e., card brand)
Card type (E.g., debit, credit)
Issuing bank
Issuing country code
Card category (I.e., business, personal)
Issuing country
Maximum PAN length (16 or 19)
Regulated vs non-regulated bank (I.e., banks over or under $10 billion in assets)
Prepaid card type (E.g., reloadable, nonreloadable)
Debit Routing Affiliated Networks (E.g., Star, Pulse)
Billing currency (E.g., USD, Yen)
Currency minor digits (I.e., decimal point precision on exchange rate)
Prepaid card subtype (I.e., Brazil Cargo, Meal Voucher)
Savings or checking account
Gaming payout (i.e., allowed or not)
*Useful for video game companies
*Additional Attributes coming soon.
Stay PCI Compliant
Longer 8+ digit BINs are even more complex for merchants to handle from a data security and PCI compliance standpoint.
PCI rules will prevent merchants from holding 10-digit BINs + last 4 of the PAN
PCI DSS Requirement 3.3 requires that no more than the first six and/or last four digits of the PAN are displayed on computer screens, reports, etc. unless there is a documented business justification for seeing more digits.
Merchants will need to rework routing systems and update infrastructure
PCI DSS Requirement 3.4 specifies four acceptable methods for rendering PAN unreadable when stored, one of which is truncation, which will need changes for a longer 8+ digit BIN. BINs are fundamentally changing by getting longer.
Stop Chasing Changing BIN Requirements
BINs do not indicate the account range, making them an inaccurate source of information. Trying to accommodate a lengthening BIN is a slippery slope that creates security and compliance risks.
- Assume Visa assigned a large bank (e.g. Chase) an account range from 4441-1100-0000-0000 to 4441-1199-9999-9999.
- Chase can reassign or resell a small portion of the account range from 4441-1100-8888-8888 to 4441-1199-9999-9999 to another issuing bank that can offer this as BIN sponsorships to a fintech.
4441-1100-8888-8887
VISA;;CREDIT;B2B;CHASE
4441-1100-8888-8888
VISA;;DEBIT;B2C;CROSSRIVERBANK
Looking at just the BIN wouldn't provide information about the actual issuing bank and would result in an inaccurate lookup.
Retain Control of Your Data
If you don't hold the PAN and get your tokens from your PSPs, your business objectives may be different. This may result in skewed routing decisions.
VGS solves this by holding the full 16-digit card information.
Securely use the PAN to query and analyze important attributes such as the affiliated network associated with the card (in support of Durbin 2.0) and the card type (to enable surcharging) - while still holding only tokens.
Customer Benefits
Intelligent Payment Orchestration
Use richer card attributes to identify and route transactions to the most efficient, cost-effective networks for faster authorization and lower fees
Subscription Payment Management
Flag payments made with nonreloadable prepaid cards to optimize subscription payment flows and minimize failed retries
Advanced Fraud Detection
Leverage more than BIN data to identify risk factors and mitigate fraud
Enhanced Checkout Experience
Retrieve real-time card attributes for pre-populating checkout fields
Minimize Processing Costs
Assign surcharges and discounts to specific card types (E.g., debit or credit)
Bypass Compliance Liability
Access full PAN data without the added compliance liability of raw sensitive information.
Future Proofing
Get continuous access to card attributes for decision-making regardless of the BIN length requirements today and in the future.
So, are BIN Lookups Returning All the Card Attributes You Need?
Read more about why BIN lengths are growing, where these BINs will affect, what this means for merchants, and how to securely leverage vault-enabled PAN lookups for a more strategic, long-term payments solution on our blog.
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BIN lookups only provide partial insight into your payment credentials.
Full PAN lookups return a complete set of card-specific data for merchants to derive insights from.
With VGS, merchants can access advanced card attributes to drive decision-making for strategic payment orchestration, fraud detection, payment authorization, and customer retention.
