Bank Identification Numbers (BINS) are 6 to 8 digit numbers licensed by Visa to issuers. Each licensed BIN has unique characteristics that Visa refers to as BIN Attributes. These BIN Attributes provide information such as the BIN’s product, issuer, licensed country and more.
The global Visa BIN Attribute Sharing Service (VBASS) is an optional service that can enable sharing of Visa BIN Attributes to improve merchant processes and checkout experiences within the allowed use cases. The service offers two methods to obtain BIN Attribute data: Direct Access from Visa and Indirect Access through an acquirer or acquirer sponsored third party.
Merchants, acquirers, issuers, and third parties connect directly to the VBASS APIs on the Visa Developer Center.
Visa has created a suite of APIs to source BIN attributes directly from Visa: (1) Full BIN List API (full issuer BIN data files), (2) Single BIN Lookup API (BIN, account range, PAN, Token lookup), and (3) Issuer API (full acquirer BIN data files).
Receive the BIN Attributes from an acquirer or an acquirer sponsored third party.
Indirect access via acquirer: Acquirer receives BIN Attributes from Visa and sends to merchant.
Indirect access via third party: Acquirer sponsored third party receives BIN Attributes from Visa and sends to merchant.
Indirect – Service enhanced by BIN Attributes: Acquirers or acquirer sponsored third parties receive BIN Attributes from Visa and provide a service solution to merchants. For example, a checkout experience that uses BIN Attributes.
The use of BIN Attributes can support a wide variety of intended uses, including:
Contact your acquirer to discuss options.
Visit Visa Developer Center for more information on direct BIN data access via the Visa API.
Visit Visa Access and contact your Visa account executive for questions on your specific case.
Visit the Visa Developer Center for more information on direct BIN data access via the Visa API.
Get more information about the service and the VBASS API here.
Acquirers, Issuers, Merchants and Third Parties are eligible to participate. Visa will require Acquirer/or Issuer sponsorship and, in most cases, a business justification.
The service is available globally.
Common permissible uses include authorization improvement, fraud management, customer service support enhancements, point-of-sale checkout customization, acceptance troubleshooting and more.
BIN Attributes are information such as the Account Funding Source (credit, debit or prepaid), Product Platform (consumer vs. commercial), Issuer country, Issuer Name and more.
Merchants can participate in the program, but only through registration by a Sponsor (Acquirer, Issuer) or by a designated entity approved by a Sponsor and Visa (e.g., Processor, Payment Facilitator or other Third Party). Merchants cannot register for the program by themselves.
Merchants and third parties may often rely on third party BIN databases to procure BIN data. Visa has found that this practice often can lead to acceptance issues, causing unnecessary declines and impacts to payment operations processes. Visa analyzed the accuracy of a leading third third-party BIN database and found that across all analyzed BIN attributes, only 32% of the third-party BIN data was accurate when compared to Visa data. Read about Third Party BIN data one pager.
