VAU BACKGROUND: Visa Account Updater (VAU) enables a secure electronic exchange of account information updates between participating Visa card issuers and acquirers for credential-on-file (COF) merchants, which enables a more seamless payment process. When participating issuers re-issue cards, they submit the new account number and expiration date to VAU. Participating merchants send inquiries on their customer’s stored credentials to VAU and are provided with updated card information, if available. This helps acquirers to proactively update buyer credentials prior to any purchase transaction. In addition to purchase transactions, VAU also supports Visa Direct (OCT and AFT) and merchandize returns transactions.
VAU Merchant Search API: The VAU Merchant Search API is a complementary API built primarily to check the updated status for those merchants where initial enrollment response is not confirmed and is instead reported as “In-progress”. However, is can also be used to check the status of any merchant the acquirer has enrolled in their VAU segment.
All Visa Account Updater programs in production require the originator to be a licensed Visa acquirer or be sponsored by a licensed Visa acquirer who is ready and able to sponsor Visa Account Updater programs. Please reach out to your Visa account representative to get more information about Visa licensing requirements.
The VAU Merchant Search API can be used in the sandbox by any developer. Test Acquiring Segment and BINs are provided as part of the sandbox test data that includes sample account numbers and expiration dates. The developer can use this data to test for various scenarios in the sandbox.
However, in order to use the VAU Merchant Search API in production, the Originator must either be a licensed Visa acquirer, or a third party Originator that is being sponsored by a licensed Visa acquirer for a VAU program. In addition, acquirers must be enrolled as a participating acquirer in VAU and provisioned with a VAU Segment ID and the API request will be validated to ensure that the submitted card numbers are associated with acquiring BINs.
Visa Account Updater Merchant Search API can be used by developers in the sandbox after registering in Visa Developer Center (VDC), verify login and set up sandbox environment. However, when a client is ready to move to production, then, there are couple of steps needs to be followed depending on whether a client is brand new to VAU and using API only, or existing batch client and wants to use API.
The following are the implementation steps for existing clients using API and new clients using API only.
a. Steps for an existing VAU client who would like to use the API:
1 |
Register as a user on the Visa Developer Center (VDC) portal, if necessary. |
2 |
Start with creating a project on VDC Portal in sandbox environment For more information, please click on this link: Create a Project |
3 |
Download your VDC user ID and password, project key and certificate, and Message Level Encryption (MLE) key and certificate to access the VDC sandbox. |
4 |
Add VAU Merchant Search API in the project created in above step. |
5 |
Download the test cases from the project Dashboard under 'Assets' and 'Sample Code'. |
6 |
Develop and test code in sandbox environment. |
7 |
When ready to move to production, contact the Client Support team in your region (project manager for EU) to inform your decision. |
8 |
The Client Support team/project manager will update the VAU admin application to add API functionality. |
9 |
Initiate the Going Live process on the VDC portal by selecting your project and selecting Going Live from the Dashboard. For more info click on Going Live |
10 |
You will receive a notification from your VDC admin/project manager with confirmation that the Going Live request has been accepted. |
11 |
Select authentication method: either X-Pay Token, Two-Way SSL, both. If Two-Way SSL is selected, you will be prompted to upload a certificate signing request (CSR). |
12 |
Submit the CSR for MLE if using Two-Way SSL. |
| 13 | The VDC admin generates certificates and informs the client to download and add new project certificates to a keystore. |
| 14 | Sign a VDC contract specific to the VAU Merchant Search API. Contract must be approved by VDC admin. |
| 15 | The VDC admin will perform project registration and approve the project to deploy in production environment. |
| 16 | Receive notification from VDC via mail with instructions to download production project key/certificate, user ID and password, and MLE Key/certificate. |
| 17 | Update the production configuration parameters in your code with the information from Step 16 to begin using the VAU Merchant Search API in production. |
| 18 | Perform production validation by sending production VAU API requests and sharing with the project manager the X-Correlation-ID, date, and time of requests. |
As a new user to VAU, please first contact your Visa representative. Review VAU terms of use, and other documentation with legal, technical, operational, and customer proposition teams. Submit a completed VAU enrollment form and enroll merchants and receive VAU Segment ID.
b. Steps for a new VAU client who would like to use the API:
1 |
Register as a user on the Visa Developer Center (VDC) portal, if necessary. |
2 |
Start with creating a project on VDC Portal in sandbox environment For more information, please click on this link: Create a Project |
3 |
Download your VDC user ID and password, project key and certificate, and Message Level Encryption (MLE) key and certificate to access the VDC sandbox. |
4 |
Add VAU Merchant Search API in the project created in above step. |
5 |
Download the test cases from the project Dashboard under 'Assets' and 'Sample Code'. |
6 |
Develop and test code in sandbox environment. |
7 |
As a new acquirer/processor to VAU, contact your Visa representative to inform your interest in using the API. |
8 |
Your Visa representative or Client Services team will send the VAU Acquirer and Merchant enrollment forms. Review the Visa Account Updater Terms of Use and other documentation with legal, technical, operational teams. |
9 |
Submit a completed VAU Acquirer and Merchant enrollment form for your region. |
10 |
When ready to move to production, contact the Client Support team (project manager for EU) in your region to inform your decision and request a VAU acquirer segment. |
11 |
The Client Support team/project manager will enroll the acquirer in VAU admin application along with merchant information specific to the acquirer. |
12 |
The Client Support team/project manager will share the newly created VAU Segment ID via email to be used in the VAU Merchant Search API. |
13 |
To add additional merchants, please complete the merchant enrollment form and send to the customer support team in your region. |
14 |
When satisfied with testing and ready to go live, initiate the Going Live process on the VDC portal by selecting your project and selecting Going Live from the Dashboard. For more info click on Going Live |
| 15 | You will receive a notification from your VDC admin/project manager with confirmation that the Going Live request has been accepted. |
| 16 | Select authentication method: either X-Pay Token, Two-Way SSL, both. If Two-Way SSL is selected, you will be prompted to upload a certificate signing request (CSR). |
| 17 | Submit the CSR for MLE if using Two-Way SSL. |
| 18 | The VDC admin generates certificates and informs the client to download and add new project certificates to a keystore. |
| 19 | Sign the VDC contract specific to the VAU Merchant API. Contract must be approved by VDC admin. |
| 20 | The VDC admin will perform project registration and approve the project to deploy in production environment. |
| 21 | Receive notification from VDC via mail with instructions to download production project key/certificate, user ID and password, and MLE Key/certificate. |
| 22 | Update the production configuration parameters in your code with the information from Step 16 to begin using the VAU Merchant Search API in production. |
| 23 | Perform production validation by sending production VAU API requests and sharing with the project manager the X-Correlation-ID, date, and time of requests. |
| North America | Asia-Pacific | Europe | CEMEA | LAC | Notes |
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As part of continuing security improvements, Visa enabled Message Level Encryption (MLE) for VAU Merchant Search API. Clients using VAU Merchant Search API are required to support MLE in both certification and production environment.
Refer to the Message Level Encryption guide at the Visa Developer Center website for instructions on using MLE.
To view availability of all products, refer to the Availability Matrix.
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