The International Organization for Standardization, based in Geneva, approved the code on Friday. The system will separately categorize sales at gun and ammunition stores, which advocates say can help track suspicious transactions of firearms and ammunition.
Visa, the world’s largest payment network, will “proceed with next steps” the company said in a statement Sunday, “while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules.”
American Express said it will follow its usual business practices and work with third-party processors and partners to implement the code.
“We are focused on ensuring that we have the right controls in place to meet our regulatory and fiduciary responsibilities, as well as prevent illegal activity on our network,” the company said in a statement Sunday.
A statement Saturday from Mastercard noted that recent bipartisan action in Congress is a positive step in “meaningfully” addressing gun violence. Now that the ISO approved the new merchant category code, Mastercard said it is turning its focus to how the system will be implemented by merchants and their banks.
“We continue to support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy and decisions of individual cardholders,” Mastercard said in a statement. “This is exactly how we would manage the process for any other appropriate MCC, like a bicycle shop or sporting goods store.”
“This is not about tracking or prevention or any virtuous motivation — it’s about creating a national registry of gun owners,” the NRA said Sunday.
