Issuer Features
Discover the benefits, enablement steps,
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Merchant Tokens (MPANs)
Seamless recurring and deferred payments
Merchant Tokens — also known as Apple Pay Merchant Primary Account Numbers (MPANs) — enable secure, uninterrupted transactions across millions of merchants on the web and in apps. Because tokens operate independently of the underlying financial account, payments continue even after a card is reissued. Cardholders can easily view and manage their recurring and deferred payments directly in Apple Wallet, reducing the need for support calls and keeping them engaged with their card.
Supported transaction types
MPANs are designed to support a wide variety of transaction types on the web and in apps. These include:
- Recurring subscriptions: Payments with a fixed amount and set frequency, such as monthly gym memberships or meal‑prep subscriptions.
- Recurring billing: Payments with a set frequency and variable amount, such as a utility bill.
- Automatic reloads: Payments that automatically replenish a balance. These can be time‑based (with a variable amount and flexible frequency) or threshold‑based (with a fixed amount and flexible frequency), commonly used for transit card top‑ups.
- Deferred payments: Payments that vary in amount and occur with limited frequency. These are often scheduled for a future date and can involve one or more transactions. For example, a hotel booking might have the primary charge processed 24 hours before check‑in, with incidental expenses charged during the stay.
- Installment repayments: Payments that allow a consumer to divide a purchase into smaller, scheduled payments of a fixed amount, occurring at a set frequency over a defined period.
Cardholder experience
MPANs enable functionality for recurring, deferred, and automatic reload payments across various cardholder touchpoints.
At checkout
In Apple Wallet
Get started.
Enable Merchant Tokens (MPANs)
Issuer support is mandatory for all token types supported on the Apple Pay platform, including MPANs. Major global networks support MPANs for all their Apple Pay‑eligible cards. Issuers can enable MPANs by following the steps below.
- Partner with us. Learn more.
- Follow the requirements.
- Review and adhere to the MPAN‑related sections in Apple’s Issuer Functional Requirements (IFR),* including:
- Technical enablement for all supported networks and all portfolios (including debit, credit, and commercial)
- Lifecycle management
- Support all token types supported on the Apple Pay platform, including MPANs.
- Review and adhere to the MPAN‑related sections in Apple’s Issuer Functional Requirements (IFR),* including:
- Work with a payment network operator (PNO) or an issuer processor.
- Ensure that they accurately support the generation, transaction processing, and lifecycle events of all types of Apple Pay tokens, including MPANs.
- Follow all PNO implementation guidelines (refer to Network articles and bulletins below).
- Configure Wallet notifications for all transactions initiating from the same Funding Primary Account Number (FPAN).
- For help contacting your PNO, or if you have other questions about Apple Pay, contact Apple Pay Partner Support.
- Test the following processes end‑to‑end:
- Provisioning
- Transaction processing
- Lifecycle management (LCM)
- Reporting
- Update metrics reports. Issuers who are providing metrics reports directly to Apple should ensure they are accurately capturing and reporting all token types, including MPAN transactions. To comply with MPAN metrics obligations, issuers should:
- Check with PNO(s) to learn about the reporting resources available to identify Apple Pay MPAN transactions. PNOs use specific fields to identify Apple Pay MPAN transactions.
- Use Apple’s reporting template.
- Incorporate MPAN reporting into the existing metrics report sent to Apple on a monthly basis.
Explore the resources
Requirements and guidelines
Documentation
Network articles and bulletins
Mastercard AP/EUR/LAC/MEA 10827.1, Technical Enablement of Companion Cloud Tokens and Recurring Payment Cloud Tokens (December 2024)
Mastercard CAN/US 10998.1, Technical Enablement of Companion Cloud Tokens and Recurring Payment Cloud Tokens (January 2025)
Visa Business News (VBN) AI14999 and AI15042 (February 20, 2025)
Visa Business Enhancement Release, article 4.4 (April 2025)
*Available after Apple Pay partner onboarding
Frequently asked questions
Merchant Tokens (also known as Apple Pay Merchant Primary Account Numbers or MPANs) are network tokens designed to facilitate recurring transactions on the web and in apps. These transactions can include subscriptions, recurring billing, automatic reload of balances, deferred payments, and installment loan repayments. For all other types of transactions — including one‑time payments — merchants will continue to use a DPAN.
For more information on recurring payments, MPAN creation, and authorization flows, refer to the Apple Pay Platform Integration Guide (for issuers) and Apple Pay Merchant Integration Guide (for merchants).
MPANs are supported by the majority of global payment networks. As of January 2026, these five networks support MPANs: American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard, Visa. If your network is not listed here, reach out to them for the latest information on when it will be supported.
MPANs help facilitate automatic or recurring payments and ensure payment continuity over extended periods. Unlike DPANs, which are specific and unique to the Apple device they reside on, MPANs are not dependent on the continued use of a single device.
In addition, Apple supports APIs and processes that notify merchants about modifications to MPANs over time (for example, by notifying merchants about updates to the MPAN’s expiration). By keeping merchants apprised of such events, Apple helps facilitate an improved user experience, as well as an enhanced operational performance for both merchants and issuers.
This feature can be enabled as part of a new or existing Apple Pay implementation. As with other Apple Pay features, Apple does not charge implementation fees for its enablement.
If an issuer has not implemented MPANs, a DPAN will be returned instead. The cardholder still benefits from the enhanced payment sheet, but the transaction will be processed with a DPAN, and the transaction will not be visible to the cardholder within the Preauthorized Payments view only within Apple Wallet.
Upon their creation, MPANs are assigned an expiration date with specific rules and durations (varying by payment network). When an MPAN’s expiration date approaches, its issuing payment network uses existing Lifecycle Management APIs to communicate the new expiration date to Apple. Apple then transmits this new expiration date to the corresponding merchant using the Apple Pay Merchant Token Management API, ensuring that future merchant‑initiated transactions (MITs) can continue to process successfully.
MPANs are unaffected if the underlying card is reissued due to natural expiration or a lost/stolen event. If the new physical card brings different metadata, for example card art and/or last 4 digits, the merchant will be notified that MPAN metadata has changed so they can update their representation of the payment method. Card Art updates are shared with merchants via MPAN lifecycle management APIs.
Cardholders can revoke or delete a specific MPAN in Apple Wallet on their iPhone or in the Settings app on their iPad. This action won’t cancel a subscription or service, but it will invalidate the MPAN for future charges.
Merchants and issuers may provide their cardholders with other channels (apps, websites, contact centers) to cancel subscriptions and/or delete payment methods. These can also lead to the deletion of an MPAN.
The MPAN will not be affected if a cardholder has a Device Primary Account Number (DPAN) set up on an Apple Pay‑eligible device for a specific card, and then deletes the DPAN from the device after an MPAN has been created.
Recurring (for example, TV streaming plan subscriptions or utility bills), automatic reload (like balance top‑ups for transit), installments (such as buy now, pay later loans), and deferred payments (like hotel bookings) are all supported. For details, refer to Enable Merchant Tokens in MPANs for merchants. Outside of these supported use cases, MPAN cannot be used for unscheduled card on file (UCOF). Any time a cardholder is actively making a one‑time purchase decision, a DPAN‑based Apple transaction flow should be used.
Yes, MPANs are covered by existing Apple Pay platform agreements and specifications, including as set forth in the Issuer Functional Requirements (IFR).
Issuer support is mandatory for all token types supported on the Apple Pay platform, including MPANs. All cards enabled for Apple Pay must support MPANs, without exception. Refer to the Issuer Functional Requirements (IFR).
Similar to issuers, processors need to update their tools to capture Apple Pay MPANs for reporting. Issuers should check with their issuer processor to determine their support level for Apple Pay MPAN reporting.
Issuers should work with their payment network operators (PNOs) to ensure that their organization accurately supports the generation, transaction processing, and lifecycle events for all types of Apple Pay tokens. Mastercard and Visa use specific fields to identify Apple Pay MPAN transactions. Issuers must update their reporting processes to accurately account for both MPAN and DPAN transactions in monthly metrics reports provided to Apple, either directly or via their PNO.
Issuers should check with their PNO to learn about the reporting resources available to identify MPAN transactions and follow PNO communications to ensure adherence with current PNO requirements.
Both MPANs (Apple Pay Merchant Tokens or Merchant Primary Account Numbers) and APANs (Account Primary Account Numbers) are network‑issued payment tokens. However, they differ in fundamental ways. An MPAN is always associated with a specific merchant, while an APAN is associated with a cardholder’s Apple Account.
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Features are subject to change. Some features, applications, and services may not be available in all regions or all languages and may require specific hardware and software.