I got this email from my Chase Merchant services today. Does it mean anything positive or negative for swiping GCs as Debits?Action Needed: Please review the use of BIN in your processes

Visa® and Mastercard® announced plans to expand the length of the Issuer BIN (Bank Identification Numbers) from 6 to 8 digits to support the rapid growth in the number of cards being issued and new forms of digital payments.

Effective April 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) mandates that new BINs are issued with 8 vs. 6 digits as 6 digit BINs will no longer be assigned.


What this means for you

If your business makes decisions based on 6-digit BIN data, as in a BIN File or BIN attributes, for downstream processes such as reports, user interfaces, billing, enrollment forms, loyalty programs and APIs, etc. then a change may be required.

It is strongly recommended that you conduct an impact analysis across your entire organization on how BIN Files and/or BIN Data is used to determine if changes are needed to support business processes including:

• Fraud and chargeback analysis
• Card acceptance, i.e., Credit, Debit, Pre-paid, Commercial, etc.
• Back office processing and reconciliation
• Interchange (Level 2, Level 3)
• Loyalty programs
• Other processes and programs

What’s not changing with the expansion of 6 to 8 digit BINs

• Card holder account numbers and length (Issuers are not expected to reissue card holder plastic.)
• BIN File creation and delivery

We’re here to help

If you have questions or need more information, please call your relationship manager or applicable Chase support contact.

For additional information, please see the article on BIN expansion from VISA/Deloitte.

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