About Account Level Management

Account Level Management (ALM) is a service offered by Mastercard and Visa to support premium credit products. ALM allows card issuers like Marqeta to aggregate spend at the account or business level as a way to optimize higher interchange rates. The higher interchange earned is typically used to help fund the travel, retail, protection, service, and lifestyle benefits offered to cardholders. The ALM periodic spend assessment process determines whether premium product customers qualify for higher/optimized interchange. If the minimum spend requirements aren’t fulfilled, customer accounts could drop to the next lower interchange level. As an issuer processor of premium credit cards, Marqeta is required to support ALM for Mastercard and Visa, and has developed services for both these card networks.

Note
Marqeta ALM services are supported only for North America — U.S. card programs. In addition, ALM does not apply to debit or prepaid cards.

How does ALM work?

With ALM, Marqeta automatically submits via the card network the primary account number (PAN) of the card when it is issued, reissued, updated, or closed, along with the linking/grouping information for the authorized cards. ALM services apply to Powered by Marqeta (PxM) and Managed by Marqeta (MxM) models for both consumer and small business credit cards. Below are the product names of each network’s premium products. Each premium product has a unique set of requirements defined by the networks, such as minimum rewards value and annual spend, and therefore requires prior approval from the card network before implementation by a new card program.

Mastercard premium products

Business cards

Business Card
World Elite Business

Consumer credit

World
World Elite

Visa premium products

Business cards

Business Card
Signature Business
Infinite Business

Consumer credit

Traditional Rewards
Signature
Signature Preferred
Infinite

Small business cards

Some small business spending cards can accumulate high levels of spend each year. To reward such high-volume cards, Mastercard and Visa offer programs where card issuers can earn higher interchange rates, depending on the cardholder spend. For small business portfolios enrolled in the Mastercard small business spend program, Mastercard automatically assigns accounts to one of five U.S. domestic Small Business Credit interchange tiers, based on a quarterly evaluation of aggregated account spend over the previous 12 months. Each quarter, the assigned tier may go up or down, depending on the rolling 12 months of spend history. As the aggregated spend increases or decreases, Mastercard seamlessly moves the small business accounts into the appropriate tiers, without requiring that the cards be reissued. If the account is new and lacks spend history, the account’s spend will be projected using a Mastercard-determined methodology, based on a weighted average for the number of days that the account has been open. The projected 12-month spend will be used to determine the appropriate Mastercard Business tier.
Example During Mastercard’s quarterly assessment, if the previous 12 months’ aggregate spend for a business account is less than $20,000, Mastercard will assign Tier 1 interchange; if the spend is $20,000-$40,000, Mastercard will assign Tier 2 interchange; if the spend is $40,000-$80,000, Mastercard will assign Tier 3 interchange, etc.
For small business portfolios enrolled in Visa account-level processing, Visa conducts spend assessment analyses every April and October to determine for which of the five U.S. domestic Business Interchange Reimbursement Fee (IRF) tiers a small business account qualifies. New accounts—with an open date of less than 180 days—will maintain the default Visa Business IRF (Tier 2) and will not be reevaluated until the next biannual spend assessment. If the account has a spend history between 6 and 12 months, the account’s spend will be projected using a Visa-determined methodology based on a weighted average for the number of days that the account has been open. The projected 12-month spend will be used to determine the Visa Business IRF tier.
Example During Visa’s biannual assessment, if the projected 12-month aggregate spend for a business account is less than $20,000, Visa will assign Tier 1 interchange; if the spend is $20,000-$40,000, Visa will assign Tier 2 interchange; if the spend is $40,000-$100K, Visa will assign Tier 3 interchange, etc.
It is important to note that if you offer a business card to small businesses as part of an Expense Management use case, for example, your card program’s account holders might have dozens —or even hundreds— of their own small business clients who use your business card program. In this situation, the card network will aggregate the spend of all these small business clients, and then assess them together on a quarterly basis. Based on the assessment criteria; these small business clients will move across all five interchange tiers.

Consumer cards

Mastercard and Visa offer higher interchange rates for consumer credit cards as well. Mastercard uses Annual Affluent Portfolio Shortfall Monitoring for consumer credit products. It allows Mastercard to monitor spending for all Mastercard Consumer World (MCW) and Mastercard World Elite (MWE) at the portfolio level. If the average spend for the portfolio is below the required average spend amount, the low-spending individual PANs pulling the portfolio average under the required threshold will have the interchange on future transactions redirected to the next-lower rate tier structure for a period of 12 months. For example, Mastercard World Elite accounts that do not meet the annual spend requirement will receive World Card interchange rates until the next annual spend assessment is performed. Visa also offers higher interchange rates for consumer credit products. For top-tier credit products — Visa Signature Preferred and Visa Infinite — Visa conducts a biannual spend assessment to assess whether accounts meet the minimum annual spend required to qualify for the highest interchange rates. Visa Signature Preferred accounts that do not meet the annual spend requirement receive Visa Signature interchange rates until the next scheduled spend assessment. Similarly, Visa Infinite accounts that do not meet the annual spend requirement receive Visa Signature Preferred interchange rates until the next scheduled spend assessment determines otherwise.

Card network support

As mentioned above, Marqeta ALM services are supported only for card programs based in North America. Marqeta supports ALM for the card networks through the services listed below.

Visa-ALM service

Marqeta has integrated with Visa’s card program enrollment platform for submitting the ALM data for new cards along with the Registered Program Identification Number (RPIN) and account linking relationship for spend aggregation upon card issuance. Created by Visa, the RPIN is a six-digit identifier that is provided to Marqeta at the beginning of the program onboarding process. The RPIN encapsulates product-related information such as the co-brand, issuer, rewards program, benefits/offers, interchange, and portfolio.

Mastercard-ALM service

Marqeta has integrated with Mastercard’s Universal Specification Submission API for submitting the ALM data for new, replaced, and closed PANs, along with the account linking relationship for spend aggregation in real-time upon card activation and termination. Marqeta has also integrated with Mastercard’s Universal Specification Detailed Response API to receive the asynchronous push notifications containing the registration status for the ALM requests.

Enablement and implementation

Marqeta ALM services are not enabled by default. The table below provides the ALM prerequisites that must be adhered to prior to enablement. To enable ALM for your card program, contact your Marqeta representative.

Mastercard ALM prerequisites

Your card program must be preapproved by the appropriate card network.
Your card program must meet the premium product requirements.
The Bank Identification Number (BIN) must be installed and assigned to your card program.

Visa ALM prerequisites

Your card program must be preapproved by the appropriate card network.
Your card program must meet the premium product requirements.
Your card program must exist in Visa’s Registered Program Manager (RPM) interface on Visa Online.
Visa will provide Marqeta with your card program’s RPIN.

Mastercard-ALM

ALM for the Mastercard network is enabled for BIN ranges.

If you are a Managed by Marqeta (MxM) customer, you do not need to provide any additional information to Marqeta.
If you are a Powered by Marqeta (PxM) customer, you must provide the relevant BIN to enable ALM.

For programs that are preapproved by Mastercard for premium product offering, Mastercard-ALM is enabled at the BIN range level. The Enablement process is the same for Managed by Marqeta (MxM) and Powered by Marqeta (PxM) customers for consumer or small business cards. Supported card product types include the Mastercard World Credit, Mastercard World Elite Credit, Mastercard Business Card, and World Elite Mastercard for Business Credit. Once the onboarding setup is complete, Marqeta starts managing the real-time ALM reporting to Mastercard by sending the ALM requests. ALM API calls are triggered:

Every time a new card is activated
Every time a replacement card (lost/compromised) is activated
Every time a card is terminated (closed/expiry)

Visa-ALM

ALM for the Visa network is enabled for BIN ranges, and supports a BIN of any length.

If you are a Managed by Marqeta (MxM) customer, you do not need to provide any additional information to Marqeta.
If you are a Powered by Marqeta (PxM) customer, you must provide the relevant BIN to Marqeta to enable ALM.

For programs that are preapproved by Visa for premium product offering, Visa-ALM is enabled at the BIN range level. It requires the RPIN and the Product ID (Signature-C, Signature Preferred-D, etc.) set up. The Enablement process is the same for Managed by Marqeta (MxM) and Powered by Marqeta (PxM) customers for consumer or small business cards. Supported card product types include Visa Traditional, Visa Traditional Rewards, Visa Signature Credit, Visa Signature Preferred Credit, Visa Infinite Credit, Visa Business Credit, Visa Signature Business Credit, and Visa Infinite Business Credit. Once the onboarding setup is complete, Marqeta starts managing the real-time ALM reporting to Visa by sending the ALM requests. ALM API calls are triggered:

Every time a new card is issued
Every time a replacement card is issued

Reporting

Marqeta has integrated with the ALM platforms for both Mastercard and Visa in order to support the authorization and reporting needs of account-level processing. The card networks have each developed mechanisms such as PAN linking to calculate aggregate spend that takes into consideration various constructs: - A primary cardholder with authorized cardholders or users - Spend distributed over two PANs due to a lost or compromised card These mechanisms help reduce the fine that card programs might have to pay when cardholders do not meet the required minimum spend. Marqeta supports these mechanisms for both Mastercard and Visa.
Examples The spouse of the primary cardholder can be the authorized cardholder. In other cases, a single cardholder may have spent the required amount, but the spend was distributed across two PANs because one of the cards was lost or compromised. For a Business Card program, the employer can be the primary cardholder and employees are the authorized cardholders. Their combined spend can help the small business achieve the minimum annual spend requirement to receive the highest interchange rates.
For accurate spend aggregation, card networks provide a mechanism within ALM for the issuers/processors to send the PAN-linking relationship. This linkage helps reduce instances of downgrading interchange tiers and the potential extra cost that the card programs may incur because cardholders did not meet the required spend limit. When ALM is enabled for your card program, Visa assigns the appropriate product ID to all authorization and clearing transactions in Field `62.23`. Mastercard assigns the account category code to all authorization transactions in Field `48.38`. Issuers are required to echo back these fields in the authorization/clearing responses. Marqeta supports this requirement by returning the required fields in the authorization and/or clearing response messages.

​How does ALM work?

​Mastercard premium products

​Business cards

​Consumer credit

​Visa premium products

​Business cards

​Consumer credit

​Small business cards

​Consumer cards

​Card network support

​Visa-ALM service

​Mastercard-ALM service

​Enablement and implementation

​Mastercard ALM prerequisites

​Visa ALM prerequisites

​Mastercard-ALM

​Visa-ALM

​Reporting

How does ALM work?

Mastercard premium products

Business cards

Consumer credit

Visa premium products

Business cards

Consumer credit

Small business cards

Consumer cards

Card network support

Visa-ALM service

Mastercard-ALM service

Enablement and implementation

Mastercard ALM prerequisites

Visa ALM prerequisites

Mastercard-ALM

Visa-ALM

Reporting