A card scheme organization is an entity that establishes a debit card, credit card or prepaid card system and grants authority to issue cards or sign merchant agreements under that system.
For example, Troy, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB and MIR are card scheme organizations.
Is there a card scheme organization that belongs to Turkey?
Yes. Turkey's own card scheme organization is TROY (Turkey's Payment Method).
How does the process work when ATMs/POS devices want to accept cards of a card scheme organization?
First, the bank must decide which payment schemes (Mastercard, Visa, Troy, etc.) will be accepted at its ATMs.
Most banks in Turkey obtain Mastercard, Visa and TROY certification. The reason is that about 97% of the cards issued within Turkey carry one of these 3 brands.
In this case, the bank needs to talk to BKM (Interbank Card Center) for ATM TROY certification, and separately to Mastercard and Visa for Mastercard and Visa certification.
If the bank does not already hold a membership, a license fee must be paid for the Mastercard, Visa and Troy membership setup.
In addition, separate ATM acquiring certification (accepting other banks' cards at ATMs) must be obtained for each of Mastercard, Visa and Troy. Passing these certifications and getting approval is not easy, and it also takes a long time. For example, Visa certifications take around 3 months, while at Mastercard this takes 6-8 months. Because Troy is our own national brand, these timelines are more reasonable than those of Mastercard and Visa.
Do certification processes vary by payment scheme?
Yes, they do. For example, Mastercard does not offer acquiring certification on its own. Issuer (card) and acquirer (POS/ATM) certification must be obtained together. This is not the case for Visa and Troy. With Visa, if you request acquiring and say you want to certify for both ATM and POS acquiring, you pay a single certification fee. If you go through separate certifications for ATM and POS, you pay a separate fee for each, which increases costs.
If I obtain acquiring certification for ATMs, is the certification also completed for POS devices?
Because the requirements for ATM and POS certification are different, the certification obtained for ATMs does not cover POS.
