The Mastercard Unique Terminal ID mandate is another attempt to stem and more quickly identify fraud at merchants using integrated retail point of sale solutions. This mandate was announced back in 2013, and requires unique terminal identifiers for each independent card reading device at a single location, not to be confused with the acquiring TID.

Effective January 1, 2017, merchants who do not adhere to the MasterCard Unique Terminal ID mandate will fall into a status of noncompliance. Fines for non-compliance go into effect December 31, 2017. Multiple card-reading devices, such as PIN pads and terminals, connected to a single host terminal are each required to have a Unique Device ID to remain compliant and avoid potential fines from Mastercard.

MasterCard Fines will be assessed for each transaction that violates this mandate.

If you do not regularly update your POS software, as is also required for PCI Compliance, you’re probably not compliant. with MasterCard and may be fined. Action: contact your POS provider for further information. Read your merchant statement messages for these and other critical alerts.