© Reuters. A woman shops for a handgun at the Frontier Arms & Supply gun store in Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S., March 18, 2020. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
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By Ross Kerber
(Reuters) – Discover Financial Services, a credit card provider, told Reuters it will allow its network to track purchases at gun stores from April, becoming the first among its peers to publicly give a date to go ahead. with the initiative, which aims to help authorities investigate weapons-related crimes.
Discover’s announcement came after the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which decides on the classification of business categories used by payment cards, approved the release of a dedicated code for gun retailers in September.
Supporters of the measure, including gun control activists and Democratic politicians, say it will allow financial institutions to better assist authorities in the investigation of crimes related to gun violence in the United States.
While the codes won’t show specific items purchased, some Republican politicians have spoken out against the measure, arguing that it could violate the privacy of US citizens who buy guns legally.
Discover said it will include the new code in its next policy and product update for merchants and payment partners in April.
“We remain focused on continuing to protect and support legal purchases on our network while protecting cardholder privacy,” Discover said in its statement to Reuters.
A Discover spokesperson said after the story was published that other payment network companies had already decided to implement the new code in April and that Discover was following suit. Discover’s spokesman declined to name those pairs.
“We were following the industry for consistent implementation,” the spokesperson said.
Representatives of major Discover pairs: visa inc (NYSE:), Mastercard Inc (NYSE:) and amexpress Co (NYSE:) — declined to comment to Reuters on its timetable for the introduction of the new code. Last fall, the companies said they would work to implement the code while respecting privacy rights.
A Geneva-based ISO representative said the new code, dubbed “5723 – Arms and ammunition shops,” will be available for use by financial institutions at the end of February.
“The decision to use the new trade category code is ultimately left in the hands of industry users,” the ISO representative said.
Discover handled 2% of the $9.56 trillion purchased with US credit and debit cards in 2022, according to industry researcher Nilson Report. Industry leader Visa had a 61% share, Mastercard 26% and American Express 11%.
