Mastercard Developers Blog

developer.mastercard.com · Company blog · on HN since 2012

The developer blog and portal of Mastercard, covering its APIs for payments, fraud scoring, blockchain and billing, plus a post on why it avoids OAuth 2.0.

What HN saysHN commenters mention it as Mastercard's API program, noting that production access requires being a verified partner or sponsored, and praise its hackathons and sample ideas.
25HN people shared it
20linked it in comments
13stories submitted
173story points
3 months agolast shared
2012people per year2026

Most-shared posts

  1. 1
    Automatic billing updater abu
    4 people · first shared 2022
  2. 2
    Why Mastercard Doesn't Use OAuth 2.0
    3 people · 151 points · first shared 2018 · 52 comments on HN
  3. 3
    Mastercard API
    3 people · 7 points · first shared 2016 · 1 comments on HN
  4. 4
    Apis
    2 people · first shared 2016
  5. 5
    API
    2 people · first shared 2013
  6. 6
    Mastercard Blockchain APIs
    1 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
  7. 7
    Mastercard fraud scoring for merchants
    1 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
  8. 8
    New and Experimental APIs
    1 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
  9. 9
    Social Network Sharing for a Single Page Application
    1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
  10. 10
    Animating Particles with JavaScript
    1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
  11. 11
    Made with Mastercard
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
  12. 12
    Reduce friction at checkout with our new APIs
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · 1 comments on HN
  13. 13
    Getting started
    1 people · first shared 2025
  14. 14
    One time credit cards
    1 people · first shared 2013
  15. 15
    Mastercard send
    1 people · first shared 2019

What HN people wrote when they linked it

ksred · 2016-02-05
MasterCard also has an API: https://developer.mastercard.com/ Just as the VISA API, this requires you to be a "verified partner" or be sponsored when going to production.
VonGuard · 2016-02-05
Master Card has been doing this for a while, and I think they do it better: https://developer.mastercard.com/portal/dashboard.action They've had hackathons, and they have a few sample ideas. My favorite is checking local restaurants and the zip codes of users. This gives you a listing of places that are popular with locals.
dzikimarian · 2025-04-14
On technical level - nothing. Thing is, that payment card is basically private key, that's derived from master key controlled by the bank. This key signs your transactions. Tokenization adds some extra steps (eg. single use keys), but it's fundamentally the same. What it means - you cannot obtain working card profile if bank doesn't issue it to you. Therefore you need blessing from bank & card scheme to be connected to this ecosystem. If you want to go deeper into this rabbit hole I can recommend two sources: * https://developer.mastercard.com/product/mdes - Mastercards framework for tokenization * https://developer.verestro.com/books/token-requestor - actual solution. It focuses on offering for single issuer, because market for Google Pay competition is pretty narrow, but technically it's mostly the same + way more red tape. If you ever decide to try - ping me, I happen to know a few guys there :-)
ian0 · 2019-03-13
It really depends on who you are sending money to. Assuming your sending to people with bank accounts a remittance service would work, like transfer-to (recently renamed Thunes) [1] and EMQ (sea only) [4]. There are several services like this, and its how mobile wallets and remittance agents (electronic ones) send cash. You may need several to provide maximum coverage if operating globally. Each country also has their own remittance providers [2] so if you are serving a specific country it would be worth digging to find out who has the best APIs. Mastercard has a service [3] that supports 80 countries but your recipients require a card. Note if your recipient is a business with an EDC machine there is a nifty way to send them cash using MC VCNs (what some global hotel booking sites use). Most remittance providers now send to wallets in addition to bank accounts, which can be used to send cash to non-banked users. Though in practice this could be a pain for them and coverage is limited and the mobile wallets vary in quality and KYC restrictions. 1. https://www.thunes.com/ 2. Only use licensed ones! Spotted this one operating in us: https://www.dwolla.com/ 3. https://developer.mastercard.com/product/mastercard-send 4. https://www.emq.com/
madeofpalk · 2025-09-15
> an API connection between bank and subscription? This already exists. Mastercard (and Visa?) has an API that lets banks notify subscriptions when your card changes to update the card number https://developer.mastercard.com/product/automatic-billing-updater-abu…
wcoenen · 2025-05-08
Related note for those surprised that 3DES is still a thing: the Mastercard specifications still use 3DES for pin block encryption. This is used each time you enter the pin for a Mastercard card! There is no alternative yet. Support for AES "coming soon". https://developer.mastercard.com/card-management/documentation/pin-blo…
pjc50 · 2023-02-01
The processor saves you significant effort for card transactions by simplifying your merchant relationship with the card processor. Technically, you can just talk directly to them over their API: https://developer.mastercard.com/apis
ceejayoz · 2022-10-09
Citibank did. The major banks all participate in Visa, Mastercard, and Amex’s updater programs. https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/visa-account-updater-… https://developer.mastercard.com/product/automatic-billing-updater-abu… https://www.americanexpress.com/us/merchant/cardrefresher.html It’s Citi’s fault for not flagging the change being for fraud reasons, which skips the updaters.
woranl · 2022-04-16
Isn’t this how OAuth 1.0a work? It is more secured for a reason. https://developer.mastercard.com/blog/why-mastercard-doesnt-use-oauth-…
litaph91 · 2015-04-07
You can view their list of apis here https://developer.mastercard.com/portal/display/api/API but they do require you to go through some exercises before you can get to some of them. With the PayPass program i'm not sure on the specifics but I would assume a fairly strenuous look at your business and what you intend to do.
tlrobinson · 2013-06-27
BTW MasterCard has a whole bunch of other interesting APIs available: https://developer.mastercard.com/portal/display/api/API
rory096 · 2013-03-12
Interesting. My initial thoughts were around a business built on that (better solving the problem I'm trying to address), but just an API could be huge. Looking around the internet, I've found a couple related things: Google Wallet creates a "Virtual OneTime Card" underwritten by The Bancorp Bank for each transaction. https://developers.google.com/commerce/wallet/online/faq Citibank lets you log into your account and create a "virtual account number." http://blog.credit.com/2011/06/worried-about-online-security-use-a-tem… This (brief) thread in a MasterCard forum, referencing closed APIs. https://developer.mastercard.com/portal/display/forums/One-time+credit…
mattmanser · 2012-04-23
Um, Mastercard already do payment processing. They're just really crap at it. Dominos use them here in the UK for example. I only noticed because it broke last night. But to call him naive when you're obviously not too clued in either... Pot, Kettle. https://developer.mastercard.com/portal/display/api/Payments And it looks like Visa are getting in on the action too, now there's a big surprise, it's in Beta: https://developer.visa.com/#vme
cnst · 2025-08-08
Visa® Account Updater for Merchants exists precisely for this reason: https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau https://developer.mastercard.com/product/automatic-billing-updater-abu… https://stripe.com/resources/more/what-is-a-card-account-updater-what-… I'm super annoyed by any hosting or telco provider that has failed to implement it, I think it amounts to negligence, especially if they stop and completely erase your entire portfolio only a couple of days after payment failure, which some officially do. I lost my Online.net Scaleway test servers this way, because they have failed to implement the updater. Of course, their support will always blame the customer. BTW, these Account Updaters are also the reason why changing a card number will not prevent any recurring charges, either; it's by design. I can confirm that Amazon Prime, Visible and 123-Reg have no issues with VAU and equivalents. Your monthly Amazon Prime in the US will continue getting billed to an expired credit card without any issues, for example. Same with Visible and even the annual renewals on 123-Reg. They all don't show the new card in the interface, and still DO issue warnings that the card is expired, yet, on the billing date, it all just bills as if nothing has happened. T-Mobile US may lack support, and Callcentric, Hetzner and Online.net, don't seem to implement an Account Updater, either, not sure about OVH.
lxgr · 2025-03-03
No, on all of timelines, finality, and who makes the final call. You're making very confident statements about a complicated process you don't seem to know all that much of. > After a week, if the merchant doesn't object, the funds are released to the issuing bank. [...] it's ultimately the issuing bank (i.e. the customer's) that makes the final call The funds are moved immediately, but within a given timeframe (depending on the network, but usually much more than a single week), the merchant has the option of clawing them back once again. That's called a "second presentment" (see for example [1] or [2]). The issuer then has the option to submit a second chargeback if they still believe they are in the right, and depending on the type of chargeback, the acquirer (and by extension merchant) might get one more chance to send yet another response. If they are still disagreeing at the end of these steps, the case can be brought to the network, which then makes a final ruling, but that's very expensive (and the losing party pays), so it's usually avoided. The money moves from issuer to acquirer and back for all of these steps. Only if the issuer makes the last move, and the acquirer does not challenge it, is the chargeback considered "won". All of that is usually hidden from at least cardholders via the provisional credit mechanism mentioned above. In any case, your assertion that the issuing bank has the last word is simply not true. [1]…
ValentineC · 2023-03-06
> Payment failure Visa now has Visa Account Updater [1], and Mastercard has Mastercard Automatic Billing Updater [2]. It looks like American Express has their own too [3]. If one configures some form of automatic payment on their cards (AutoPay in the US; direct debits or GIRO in other parts of the world), along with using a "wallet" comprising multiple cards or bank accounts like PayPal [4] — it feels like paying for services would go on for longer than expected. [1] https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/visa-account-updater-… [2] https://developer.mastercard.com/product/automatic-billing-updater-abu… [3] https://www.godaddy.com/help/about-credit-card-account-updater-program… [4] PayPal's more than happy to also take money from your bank accounts without your consent if your cards fail, if you have the accounts added, just to keep your bills paid.
obeattie · 2019-04-22
This isn't new and has existed for nearly 20 years. Visa's implementation is called VAU (Visa Account Updater[1]) and Mastercard's is ABU (Automatic Billing Updater[2]). Issuers (banks) have to provide the details of these new cards to Visa/Mastercard, and the systems are certainly capable of updating the details of debit cards. It sounds like TD had a bug where they sent updates for cards which they shouldn't have. ie: TD broke their own rule about only enrolling credit cards. Card details which do not automatically update are really frustrating for customers – especially on services like Uber. In nearly all cases the customer is going to go and give the merchant their new card details anyway. My understanding is that if card is compromised (as opposed to being lost) then banks should not provide the new details. There isn't really much _additional_ privacy or security risk here beyond those posed by merchants/acquirers holding onto card details already – provided banks do it right. Though zooming out a little, long-lived payment tokens shared among every merchant a user shops with being the way things are still done is crazy. How long it has took to roll out EMV (chip cards), especially in the US, shows how hard it is to effect change in vast, three+ sided marketplaces like card networks. [1] https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau [2] https://developer.mastercard.com/product/automatic-billing-updater Disclosure: I work for a bank.

Keyboard shortcuts

/Search
j kNext / previous blog
EnterOpen selected blog
vVisit the blog site
fFollow / unfollow
lSwitch grid / list view
dSwitch dark mode
g hHome
g pTop posts
g tTopics
g fFollowing
g lLiked
g yHistory
g qFAQ
EscBack / close