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Identifying Domestic and Cross-Border OCTs

Visa defines a transaction as domestic when you, the acquirer, and the recipient issuer are all in the same country. If the recipient issuer is in a different country from you or the acquirer, the transaction becomes a cross-border transaction.

In the European Economic Area (EEA), Visa uses different definitions for domestic and cross-border transactions for internal risk management of Original Credit Transactions (OCTs) compared to countries outside the EEA. Therefore, do not interpret the definitions in the domestic versus cross-border definition table as legal advice from Visa. Acquirers and recipient issuers must seek their own legal advice on their legal and regulatory obligations in the EEA.

The EEA domestic versus cross-border definitions apply to:

Visa’s default velocity limits and recipient issuer’s custom velocity limits

Data requirements to process an OCT (for details see Appendix A of

Original Credit Transaction Data Elements and Processing Rules

)

Use case restrictions (prepaid load and credit card bill payment)

The domestic vs. cross-border definition table explains domestic and cross-border OCT transactions within the European Economic Area (EEA) regions, UK (and Gibraltar, where relevant), and outside EEA.

Domestic vs. Cross-Border Definition

Geographic Scope	European Economic Area (EEA), UK, and Gibraltar (where relevant) Money Transfer	European Economic Area (EEA), UK, and Gibraltar (where relevant) Funds Disbursement/Non-Money Transfer	Outside EEA
Domestic	Sender country (as provided by the originating merchant/acquirer) and recipient account range within the same EEA country and UK (and Gibraltar, where relevant), AND Acquirer and recipient issuers within the EEA and UK (and Gibraltar, where relevant) Example: Person-to-person Money Transfer between two people in Germany	Merchant country and recipient account range within the same EEA country and UK (and Gibraltar, where relevant), AND Acquirer and recipient issuers within the EEA and UK (and Gibraltar, where relevant) Example: Funds Disbursement between a merchant and a person in Germany	You, the acquirer, and recipient issuer are in the same country.
Cross-border	Anything that does not meet the Domestic Money Transfer definition is considered cross-border Example: Person-to-person Money Transfer between a sender in Spain and a recipient in France	Anything that does not meet the Domestic Funds Disbursement/Non-Money Transfer definition is considered cross-border Example: Funds Disbursement from a merchant in Spain to a recipient in Malta	Recipient issuer is in a different country than you or the acquirer.