By Chris Phillips

Once upon a time, there was an issue that came up in every card association sponsorship and processing agreement and in any sophisticated merchant agreement negotiation (that is, one where the merchant read their terms and conditions and actually tried to make a change).  Every card processing agreement includes a covenant to abide by Card Association Rules (commonly know as "The Rules," this included Visa Operating Regulations and Bylaws and the MasterCard Bylaws and Rules, though it might also include Amex rules, Discover rules, debit network rules, etc.). 
 
There was one very good reason everyone included this - The Rules said that an agreement to follow The Rules had to be in the contract.  Or at least, that's what the bigger fish always said to the smaller fish (it had the added virtue of being true).  But the quirky thing was, most of the parties agreeing to be bound by The Rules couldn't get a copy of them.  Sure, the banks had the rules and the processors had the rules, but for ISOs, sub-ISOs, merchants, etc., forget about it.  Sometimes, neither party to the contract knew what was really in there. 
 
Absurd, you might say.  How could you be bound by The Rules if you couldn't read them?  How would you know if you violated them?  What's more, violation of The Rules was usually a Big Deal (triggering termination of the agreement, cutoff of residuals, fines, etc.).  So, there would be a dance.  Smaller Party would agree to be bound by The Rules if they were provided by the Bigger Party.  "Sorry," Bigger Party would say, The Rules are confidential.  "We could show them to you, but then we'd have to kill you."  Or something like that.  In the end, Smaller Party would suck it up and agree to be bound by The Rules, sight unseen.  If they were lucky, maybe the Bigger Party would allow immaterial violations of The Rules without triggering a really Big Deal as long as the violations were cured in a reasonable period of time.  One helpful large acquiring bank did provide a handy-dandy summary of The Rules in just a few pages, but that was about as goo      d as it would get.  Maybe a magazine article would quote The Rules, or an ISO would go to the ETA convention and listen to the Associations talk about changes in The Rules, or new enforcement actions under The Rules. 
 
Well, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and after much hand wringing, both Visa and MasterCard (no longer the club of banks they once were) have both made their Rules (or at least most of them) public.  MasterCard, to its credit did this a few years ago (large excerpts anyway), but Visa just gave up the ghost last month (in fairness, it had earlier allowed merchants to access The Rules if they would executed a confidentiality agreement).  (I could link to them for you, but that would be too easy, wouldn't it?)
 
Now everybody knows what those of us who worked for banks and processors knew.  The Rules are long, complex, alternatively granular and vague and generally not that surprising.  Most of the stuff that affects an ISO or merchant's daily life was already in their Agreement elsewhere (as required by The Rules, of course).  But if you're taking that plane ride to Sydney or need a hefty doorstop that pulls double duty as the foundation of our wonderful retail system, warm up the printer - it's all there for you.