ISO 18245: Merchant Category Codes
Deep dive into ISO 18245, the international standard defining Merchant Category Codes (MCC) used globally by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Analysis of ISO’s global influence on financial messaging, merchant classification, and data security standards.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-governmental international organization that develops and publishes wide-ranging proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards. In the financial sector, ISO standards form the “plumbing” of global transactions.
Key Financial Standards
- ISO 18245 (Merchant Category Codes): The standard that defines how businesses are classified for credit card processing and rewards.
- ISO 8583: The standard for systems that exchange electronic transactions made by cardholders using payment cards.
- ISO 20022: The emerging multi-part international standard for financial messaging.