Visa, Mastercard Pause Work on Code Aimed at Gun Purchases (2)

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have decided to pause implementing a plan that activists had hoped would track firearm sales and help curb gun violence.

The payments giants — along with Discover Financial Services and American Express Co. — are delaying the work after a series of bills in state legislatures targeted the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant category code. The MCC was created to be used when processing transactions for gun and ammunition stores.

Priscilla Sims Brown, chief executive officer of Amalgamated Bank, led the push to implement the new merchant category code.

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

“There are bills advancing in several states related to the use of this new code,” a spokesman for Mastercard said in a statement ...