As your payments partner, we are committed to keeping you up-to-date with industry changes and card brand developments.
The EU Commission has issued new legislation aimed at vulnerabilities relating to the use of anonymous prepaid products within the European Economic Area (EEA). Anonymous prepaid cards are not personalised to the cardholder, either by an embossed name or other personalisation mark (such as a retail gift card). Since going into effect in January 2020, The Anti-Money Laundering Directive 5 (AMLD5) requires EU Member States to adopt legislation that prohibits acquirers in the European Economic Area (EEA) from accepting payments carried out with anonymous prepaid cards issued in non-EEA countries, where such anonymous prepaid cards do not meet requirements deemed equivalent to those in AMLD5. This requirement applies to card-not-present and face-to-face environments.
Action required:
As a direct result of AMLD5, using information provided by the card brands, Elavon has updated its systems to block any transaction involving anonymous prepaid cards issued outside of the EEA where anti-money laundering requirements have not been met. These attempted transactions should be receiving a decline during the authorisation process, however if they were approved and sent to Elavon for settlement, Elavon will reject the transaction. Should you have any questions, please contact your relationship manager.