<New feature, separately licensed>
Now Way4 is compatible with Mastercard’s Decoupled Card program. An issuer can offer decoupled cards to customers to ensure a convenient and cost-efficient payment experience. With a decoupled Mastercard card, certain retail transactions can be automatically funded from the balance of a linked card belonging to the same cardholder. Linked cards can come from any issuer and any payment scheme that supports 3DS authentication. So cardholders can rely on just one Mastercard card for all their purchases, but at the same time activate the loyalty options of other cards they own.
Here is an example of how decoupling can benefit the cardholder.
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Petrol top-up transactions are funded from linked card A which provides discounts on petrol.
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If the transaction amount exceeds certain threshold, funds will be withdrawn from card B, because it offers cashback on large-amount purchases.
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All transactions in foreign currency are funded from linked card C, since it has competitive FX rates.
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All other transactions are processed in a standard way using the balance of the decoupled card.
The issuer of the credit or debit decoupled card receives multiple benefits, including an increased card turnover, higher revenue from interchange reimbursement fees, and extended data on the cardholder’s spending patterns and turnovers.
The issuer of the linked card can expect certain benefits as well. In most cases, it is more profitable to process retail transactions initiated by the decoupled card than to process withdrawals via ATMs or P2P transfers.
Typically, a cardholder uses online or mobile banking to enroll a Mastercard card in the program, link funding cards and configure funding rules. Way4 can process requests from self-service channels and manage retail transactions for the decoupled card. Funding rules can depend on various parameters: the type of purchased goods, the merchant category code, the transaction currency or amount, the day of the week, and others. When the cardholder configures the rules, Way4 makes sure that they do not contradict each other.
There is no limit to the number of funding cards. 3DS authentication is required to complete the card linking process.
If the linked card does not have enough funds at the moment of the retail transaction, two scenarios are possible. Way4 can either decline the payment or withdraw the lacking amount from the balance of the decoupled Mastercard card. The issuer decides which scenario should be the default option. Some issuers allow cardholders to choose the preferred scenario when they configure the funding rules.
Decoupled cards are already quite popular in the UK, and Mastercard is now promoting this program in other regions. You can contact your BRM to find out if this program is available in your country.