Visa Inc to start categorising gun sales at US stores

Visa Inc says it will implement a new merchant category code that will identify transactions at gun shops in the United States.

Saturday’s announcement from the world’s largest payment processor marked a big win for activists who have argued that categorizing gun sales separately will help better track suspicious firearms purchases that could be a prelude to a mass shooting.

It came a day after the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the creation of the new code.

“Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” Visa said in a statement.

Credit card processors use codes to identify sales by sector such as grocery stores, restaurants and more. Until Friday, gun store sales were considered “general merchandise”.

The new code would help monitors track where an individual spends money, but would not show what specific items were purchased.

Mastercard Inc has also said it will also implement the new code.

Following ISO’s approval on Friday, Mastercard Inc said “we now turn our focus to how it will be implemented by merchants and their banks as we continue to support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy and decisions of individual cardholders”.

American Express Co had said earlier that when the ISO develops a new code, the company will work with third-party processors and partners on implementation.

Gun control advocates had been pressuring the ISO and banks to adopt this code.

Agencies