What Restaurants Need to Know About the Mastercard 2-Series BIN Expansion

The payments sphere has changed dramatically in the past few decades, so much so that it sometimes feels as if it is an entirely new landscape. With unattended payment solutions, mobile wallets, and EMV chip cards, gone are the days of carrying cash as a main form of payment. One of the biggest changes to the payments industry is happening at this very moment – the global payments giant, Mastercard, is in the process of expanding to its new 2-series card account numbers, from 222100 to 272099. 

The digits at the beginning of the card number are known as the BIN, or bank identification number, and are pivotal in matching the card issuers to the transaction. Mastercard’s previous cards began with the number 5. The push for the 2-series BIN cards began years ago to accommodate explosive card account growth. The original date for merchant compliance was January of this year, but Mastercard extended the deadline by six months to June 30th. With almost a month since the June deadline…