BINs And Card Ranges
A BIN (Bank Identification Number, also called IIN) is the first 6 or 8 digits of a payment card number. A Card Range is a subdivision of a BIN that allows for more granular control - a BIN represents up to one billion cards, whereas a Card Range can be as small as a single card. Apata treats BINs and Card Ranges identically.
Organisation-level Management
All BINs are managed at the Organisation level. This allows the organisation to control which Financial Institutions have access to which BINs. A BIN can be made available to all Financial Institutions in the organisation, or restricted to a specific subset.
A PAN may only exist once within an entire organisation. If a card is enrolled in one Financial Institution, it cannot be enrolled in another within the same organisation, even if the BIN is shared.
BIN vs Card Range
Defined by a value (the leading digits) and a PAN length. Covers all cards that start with those digits and match the specified length.
Use this when you want to register an entire BIN for a Financial Institution.
Scheme
Each BIN is associated with a payment scheme (e.g. Visa, Mastercard). The scheme determines which cryptogram algorithms are available for authentication value generation on that BIN.
Co-Badging
In a co-badging model, a single card carries two payment scheme brands and is routed to the appropriate scheme based on the transaction context. The routing decision is made at the scheme level before the authentication request reaches the ACS, so Apata always receives a request that is already associated with a specific scheme.
Transaction Routing Model
Co-badged cards are typically paired between a local domestic scheme and an international scheme such as Mastercard or Visa. The active scheme for any given transaction depends on where and how the transaction originates.
Routed via the local scheme for that market. Examples include Jaywan in the GCC, mada in Saudi Arabia, and Elo in Brazil.
Routed via the international scheme (e.g. Mastercard or Visa) for transactions originating outside the card's domestic market.
The scheme selection is determined upstream based on merchant configuration, BIN tables, domestic indicators, and each scheme's routing logic. Apata plays no part in this decision.
How Apata Handles Co-Badge Routing
Apata does not need to infer or determine the scheme. The active scheme is identifiable with certainty from the incoming DS connection endpoint. Each scheme operates its own Directory Server, and requests are routed to Apata through the corresponding connection.
Requests received via a local scheme's Directory Server (e.g. Jaywan, mada, Elo) are processed under that scheme's configuration in Apata.
Requests received via an international scheme's Directory Server (e.g. Mastercard, Visa) are processed under that scheme's configuration in Apata.
This approach ensures strict logical separation between schemes while supporting a single co-badged card product. Each scheme operates under its own configuration within Apata, with no cross-contamination of authentication logic or reporting.
A single co-badged card may be authenticated under different scheme configurations depending on where a transaction originates. All co-badging combinations supported by Apata work without any additional configuration required from the issuer.
Routing to a Card Program
A BIN or Card Range can be linked to a Card Program, routing all transactions from cards in that range through the associated Risk Profile and Challenge Profile. If no Card Program is assigned, the default Card Program of the Financial Institution is used.
Important Considerations
Apata does not store PANs in clear text. If a BIN or Card Range is edited or deleted, Apata cannot validate whether enrolled cards still fall within the updated range. Cards whose PANs no longer match a valid BIN entry will fail at transaction time. It is the responsibility of the organisation to ensure that any changes to BINs or Card Ranges remain consistent with the cards that have been enrolled.
Updated about 1 month ago