Account Name Inquiry (ANI)
The ANI service enables an Acquirer and the merchant to verify the legal name of a cardholder directly with the Issuer (in this case this is Thredd). This Visa service determines whether or not the merchant should proceed with the card-not-present (CNP) or Visa Direct transaction based on name matching details, such as a full or a partial or a no match. ANI is designed to protect against scam and fraud across payment channels.
Visa only performs a one-off verification of a transaction, where there is no STIP (Stand-In Processing) when the issuer's systems are unavailable.
The equivalent of ANI in Mastercard is Name Validation Service.
How the Process Works
The figure below describes the ANI check, where Thredd has the Issuer role and Visa has the Verifier role.
Figure: Account Name Inquiry (ANI)
Further details of the steps are described below.
- The merchant sends a request for a name match through their Acquire as part of an Account Verification Message. The request includes the PAN/token and name.
- As the verifier, Visa shares the token's PAN with Thredd and requests the name of one or more cardholders linked to the PAN.
- Thredd shares the cardholder names linked to the PAN with Visa for verification.
- Visa returns the match results (match, partial, no) to the Acquirer for each name provided. Note that Visa does not share the name sent by the Issuer.
- The Acquirer returns the match results from Visa to the originator/merchant
When selecting ANI, ensure that you choose Visa Verifies with no advice. For more details, speak to your Implementations Manager.
Fields Supporting Account Name Inquiry
The following fields in Account Verification Messages are supported in countries where ANI is available. These include:
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TLV Field 34, Dataset ID 03—Additional Service Request Data
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TLV Field 56, Dataset ID 05—Account Owner Data
For more details, refer to the Misc_TLV_Data_Field Message page in the EHI guide.
Account Name Inquiry Availability
Account Name Inquiry for Visa is currently supported in the following countries:
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Andorra |
French Guiana |
Luxembourg |
Saint Martin |
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Australia |
Germany |
Malta |
San Marino |
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Austria |
Gibraltar |
Martinique |
Singapore |
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Belgium |
Greece |
Mayotte |
Slovakia |
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Bulgaria |
Guadeloupe |
Monaco |
Slovenia |
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Canada |
Hungary |
Netherlands |
Spain |
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Croatia |
Iceland |
New Zealand |
Sweden |
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Cyprus |
Ireland |
Norway |
Switzerland |
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Czech Republic |
Israel |
Poland |
Turkey |
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Denmark |
Italy |
Portugal |
UK |
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Estonia |
Latvia |
Reunion |
USA |
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Finland |
Liechtenstein |
Romania |
Vatican State |
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France |
Lithuania |
Saint Barthelemy |
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