The credit card industry is introducing two major requirements for processing credit cards in the coming months, which have the potential to impact the amount of money your organization pays for credit card transactions. The two new requirements are: [b]1. American Express Card Acceptance Processing Network (CAPN)[/b] CAPN is a global, multi-million dollar, multi-year technology effort that will deliver a more flexible, adaptable and efficient Card processing infrastructure for all of the American Express core payment systems – authorization, submission, clearing and settlement. The CAPN compliance deadline is August 31, 2007. According to AMEX, any merchant not in CAPN compliance by August 31 will be subject to non-compliance fees of up to $1.00 for each non-compliant transaction. [b]2. Visa Card Level Results (Field 62.23) Compliance [/b] This portion of the Service Pack addresses the Visa mandate that all merchants send their Acquirer/Processors Authorization Response field 62.23, a field used to determine the card type used in a transaction. Starting in October 2007, this field will be required to be sent in by merchants order to receive proper qualification. According to Visa, merchants not in compliance by October will incur additional per-transaction fees. Blackbaud is currently working with PCCharge to ensure that our products are fully compliant with these additional requirements before they take effect. The solution will be tested/certified against the latest versions of PCCharge (5.7.1i SP8) and The Patron Edge (version 3.24 Patch 3). If your organization is not on the latest versions of PCCharge or The Patron Edge, please contact Blackbaud Patron Edge Support about getting the latest updates. Once compliance is achieved a separate post to the Blackbaud forum will be made indicating successful compliance and instructions on any further updates required.

Thanks Brian!

The Patron Edge versions 3.240 patch 3* and higher and The Patron Edge Online versions 3.23* and higher have been certified compatible with the latest version of PCCharge. This latest release of PCCharge delivers full compliance for the updated processing requirements for American Express Card Acceptance Processing Network (CAPN) as well as Visa Card Results (Field 62.23). Please create a case with Patron Edge Support to receive the latest update of PCCharge 5.71i SP8. Within the case please include your PCCharge serial number which will help expedite the processing of your upgrade. After the upgrade and as validation, Blackbaud suggests that you check with your processor after upgrading PCCharge to ensure that they are receiving the correct information and transactions are being received as fully compliant. * All required changes for compliance were made within the PCCharge Payment Server application. If you are not running the Patron Edge and Patron Edge Online versions listed above and are using a previous version of PCCharge 5.71, while not tested by Blackbaud, The Patron Edge and Patron Edge Online should still be compliant after applying the PCCharge update. If you find this to not be the case, please create a support case and we can determine a proper plan of action.