Account Name Inquiry Service (ANI)
Verify the account holder.
To help address growth in account takeover fraud and authorized push payment scams, market demand, and increasing concern from governments and regulators, card networks have introduced Account Name Inquiry (ANI) functionality. It enables an account cardholder’s name to be checked against the name held by their Issuing bank.
Fighting Fraud as Part of a Layered Control Environment
TabaPay Clients can consider using ANI and account verification as part of a multi-layered approach to fraud and scam reduction, and to enhance other know-your-customer (KYC) processes.
ANI Workflow
Using ANI, the customer-entered name is checked against the name at the issuing bank. The check can be carried out in advance of a transaction at time of customer onboarding, just before a transaction, periodically, or on an ad-hoc basis. The name match result consists of match results (match/partial/no) for each name sent (first/middle/last), as well as an overall match result for the complete name set.
- Verifying the name provided by a cardholder can help reduce exposure to fraud and scams in subsequent transactions of any kind, but in particular for push and pull transactions (AFTs/OCTs) where a funds recipient may be a scammer or fraudster.
- Organizations that will benefit include: cardholders themselves, online merchants, push/pull transaction originators, wallet providers, payout operators, and other payment workflows wanting a layer of verification.
- ANI works independently of the financial transaction. TabaPay Clients can not only think of ANI as an enhanced version of card verification services such as AVS or CVV2 checks but as a means to triangulate the customer as an entity that also owns or has access to the physical card.
'Name' in Account Name Inquiry
- The ‘name’ used by the ANI service means the name of the cardholder that the card issuer has on file and that is linked to the associated card. This is usually, but not always, the name on card. It is also usually referred to as the ‘legal’ name.
- In an ANI check, the customer provided name is checked against the name that the issuer has on file for the card.
- Prior to performing an ANI name verification, the merchant, originator or cardholder should be made aware in card onboarding or registration, that they must provide the name that their issuing bank holds for them. If a cardholder changes their name, marries, uses nick-names or abbreviations, without informing their issuing bank, ANI is likely to return a ‘partial’ or ‘no match’ result. Some, but not all, issuers hold multiple names on a card account PAN, such as both married and maiden name.
- ANI requests and match processes are built to support match of a first, middle and last name (sometimes referred to as surname or family name) provided by the requester for the cardholder, and where, at a minimum, the last name must be provided.
- All three names should be used wherever possible. TabaPay Clients can only supply one name set at a time (First/Middle/Last name) for matching, per Query Card API request.
- If the issuer holds more than one name set against a single card account / PAN, the issuer will perform checks against each name on file, and return the most viable / most positive match result.
ANI Example Flow
- Name Collection: TabaPay Clients collect name from their customer.
- Query Card API Request Initiation: A name check is requested by the TabaPay Client via Query Card API as part of a customer onboarding or periodic account check process. This results in a zero-amount authorization with the cardholder’s first, middle, and last name, and other credentials for checking such as CVV2 and cardholder billing Address. TabaPay will add the card details and send to Visa. The initiation may be through, for example; online merchant customer onboarding or checkout system, P2P payment system, Me-2-Me or payment wallet, A2A system, sharing app, crypto-wallet, brokerage account system, money movement operator, payout service, funds disbursement system, payroll system etc. TabaPay Clients may populate additional fields in the Query Card API request and they work business-as-usual.
- Card Network Validation: TabaPay reaches out to the Card Networks to perform ANI. They in turn reach out to the issuing bank to fetch the corresponding cardholder name for the payment card/token. The card network then performs a match and obtains match results.
- Query Card API Response: TabaPay Clients receive the response from TabaPay with the name match results. The name match result is broken down into an overall match result, plus an individual name match result for each of the first, middle and last names provided. Each match result is either a Match, Partial Match or No Match. [Clients will receive a result of (ANI Performed / Not Performed / Not Supported), and if ANI is performed, a match result will be provided for the names (Match / No Match / Partial Match)]
- TabaPay Client Decisioning: On receipt of the name match result, the system that triggered the request, along with the account verification, interprets the match result may follow a particular fraud prevention routine defined by the TabaPay Client. For example, the system may: log a name match success, alert their internal systems to a name match fail, layer the match result with other fraud detection tools and act accordingly, flag the fail to a manual queue or operator, request a (limited count) retry, prevent the transaction from happening, etc. It is up to the TabaPay Client to configure this logic.
ANI Decisioning
Recommendation on Decisioning
ANI is a new product and we do not have any prior information to share on its efficacy. TabaPay clients must note that the following decisioning matrix is our recommendation and we leave it to our clients' discretion to use the tool however they seem fit for your business and use case.
This is suggested logic for decisions TabaPay Clients could take based on the results of ANI.
| Match Result | Example Decisioning |
|---|---|
| Matched | If a name verification has produced a ‘Match’ result, and no other checks or parameters indicate otherwise, and the TabaPay Client has no other concerns, then the TabaPay Client may decide that this may be a good candidate to proceed with subsequent transactions. Note: ANI is one of the many layers of security that TabaPay Clients have, and it is up to the clients' discretion to use these available tools. |
| Partial Match | If a Partial Match is obtained, TabaPay Clients should leverage their own risk-based approach / risk criteria before proceeding, or request additional information or retries from their customer before proceeding with subsequent transactions |
| No Match | The TabaPay Client may choose not to proceed with subsequent transactions |
API Integration
Get started with ANI by integrating with the TabaPay Unified API.
Query Card API
TabaPay Query Card API returns the match results on Name as received from the card networks.
Key fields to consume for ANI:
- codeANI - for the overall match result
- codeFullName - for the match result on the Full Name provided
- codeFirstName - for the match result on just the First Name
- codeMiddleName - for the match result on just the Middle Name
- codeLastName - for the match result on just the Last Name
Request
Response
Using ANI with AVS
Clients are encouraged to grab the avsID from the Query Card API response, and use it in the Create Transaction API request. This would not verity users during the transaction, but would help track and monitor efficacy of both AVS and ANI on processing.
ANI Results
Please refer ANI Response Codes for the match results you will obtain as a result of the verification.
Updated about 2 months ago