About MasterCard's lane identifier mandate

In an effort to combat and reduce fraud, MasterCard issued a lane identifier mandate that requires merchants using multiple card acceptor devices (i.e. workstations, lanes, or peripheral terminals) to pass a unique terminal ID with all authorization and settlement activities. Adding a unique identifier to each card acceptor device will allow a transaction to be traced through the networks and back to the terminal from which it originated. Going forward, card brand networks will be able to source where potential fraud occurred. It's worth noting that identifying the exact location of fraud occurrence not only helps in isolating payment devices in the event of a breach, but also in devising better fraud prevention strategies.

HMS supports the lane identifier mandate. The workstation ID will be passed to all authorization and settlement activities regardless of card type. There are three approved payment gateway solutions for HMS: Merchant Link, Evalon Fusebox, and Evalon Protobase. Merchant Link and Evalon Fusebox support the lane identifier mandate.

Currently the payment gateway application Evalon Protobase does not support the lane identifier mandate, so it is recommended that any property wanting to comply with the mandate upgrade to Evalon Fusebox. Since there may not be enough lead time prior to the mandate deadline to upgrade to Evalon Fusebox, Evalon has proposed a workaround for HMS clients using Protobase. The workaround is to consider each Lane ID (workstation ID) as a separate Merchant Key in Elavon's Merchant File.

The following must be done prior to setting up the devices when using Evalon Protobase:

1. Identify the number of workstations that will be sending card authorization and settlement requests.
2. Contact Evalon and property's acquiring bank, ask for the required number of merchant keys.
3. Verify the merchant file received from Evalon includes the correct merchant keys.
4. Install the merchant file.