F19—ACQUIRING INSTITUTION COUNTRY CODE
The country to which the location of the acquiring bank's device (ATM, POS, etc.) belongs.
Value format
The F19 field contains the 3-digit numeric country code from the ISO 3166 standard. For Türkiye, this value is 792. For example, 840 is used for the USA and 276 for Germany.
Which checks is it used in?
The issuing bank understands from the F19 field in which country the transaction was accepted. This information is important in the following cases:
- Authorization for use abroad: If the cardholder's card is closed to foreign transactions, transactions where the country code in F19 is outside Türkiye are declined.
- Fraud checks: Transactions coming from different countries within a short time may be considered suspicious by risk systems.
- Fees and commissions: Foreign transaction fees and card scheme commissions are calculated according to the country where the transaction takes place.
Fields similar to F19
F19 shows the country of the merchant's bank. ISO 8583 also has other fields that carry country information. F20 shows the country to which the card number belongs, and F21 shows the country of the institution forwarding the message. Country information may also be found in the F43 field, which contains the merchant's address details. In most transactions these values are the same, but they may differ for merchants operating across borders.
