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 t ...

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 ref ...

s, one for

office supply Office supplies are consumables and equipment regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, by individuals engaged in written communications, recordkeeping or bookkeeping, janitorial and cleaning, and for storage of supplies ...

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 r ...

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 ISO/TC 68, Technical Committee 68 on Banking, Securities and other Financial Services, is a technical committee formed within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), of Geneva, Switzerland, tasked with developing and maintaining ...

. 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