• Rules and regulations

• Chargebacks
• Currency conversion

• Merchant Service Charge

• Minimising fraud

• Data security

Rules and regulations

Any organisation running a system the size of Visa needs a set of rules and regulations.

These allow everyone to understand their rights and responsibilities and help to ensure that Visa payments are preferred and trusted.

Visa rules and Operating Regulations – mandated internal requirements for Visa card issuing banks, acquiring banks and merchants – are organised in geographical and business sectors.

For example, international Operating Regulations govern worldwide issues, while Visa Europe Operating Regulations cover issues relevant to this region. Visa members in individual countries also need to adhere to national regulations.

What this means for you

As a merchant, you need to conform to Visa acquirer rules and regulations. Your acquiring bank may also have rules of its own.

The rules and regulations are, in essence, common sense that has been written down. For merchants, they include:

• How and where you can use the Visa sign
• Which cards you can accept
• How to carry out transactions properly
• The security measures you must put in place
• Use of cardholder information
• Rules for specific retail sectors and channels such as the Internet or Mail Order and Telephone Order (MOTO) payments
• Your payment guarantee
• Your acquiring bank’s obligations
• How disputed transactions or chargebacks are handled

Visa rules also cover:

• Chargebacks – reversals of disputed sales transactions
• Currency conversion – allows your foreign customers to pay in their home currency

Other areas of regulation

Specific rules ban the use of Visa payments to buy any product that is illegal in a country.

Another exclusion covers child pornography. No Visa bank may knowingly allow access to Visa systems by any organisation involved in child pornography. It will be expelled if found to be doing so.

We use advanced search technology, 24-hours-a-day, to find Internet sites selling child pornography that are also displaying Visa marks and work closely with national governments and law enforcement agencies to ensure appropriate action is taken against them. This includes shutting down any links to the Visa system.

The rules and Operating Regulations are regularly updated to reflect changing circumstances and new technologies.

Further information

Please contact your acquiring bank for more details on Visa rules and Operating Regulations.