Why would a merchant need to identify the card in any case? The "Honor all Cards" rules set forth by the card networks apply to all products. So if someone walks in with a Visa Signature card, which generally has an interchange rate 50 to 70 basis points higher than regular cards, the merchant can't do anything different in the card-acceptance process.
Interchange rates are assigned to transactions at the nightly process of clearing and settlement. So acquirers would know who the $10 billion-plus issuers were by
It's no different from the process of interchange downgrades.
Merchants will not need to know, nor should they care, about the issuer at the time of authorization, as they will not be able to surcharge the transaction anyway.
Laurence De Palma
TDG-Phenix, Inc.
Nashville, Tenn.
