ISO 18245 is an

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

standard concerning the assignment of

Merchant Category Code A Merchant Category Code (MCC) is a four-digit number listed in ISO 18245 for retail financial services. An MCC is used to classify a business by the types of goods or services it provides. Assignment of MCCs MCCs are assigned either by merchant ...

s (MCC) in retail financial services. These are used to control usage of corporate

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

s. MCCs are assigned by merchant type (e.g. one for

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s, one for office supply stores, etc.), with each merchant being assigned an MCC by the

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

Corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

s can then control which MCCs their employees may use their corporate cards at, and this is enforced through the authorization system. They are 4 digits in length. For example, MCC 5967 represents 'Inbound telemarketing merchants'. New MCCs can be applied for through TC68. They are generally reserved for merchant categories having at least $10 million annual revenue.

External links

ISO 18245:2003 Retail financial services -- Merchant category codes
{{ISO standards #18245