The first thing to know is that Mastercard has stopped issuing new Maestro cards in Europe since July 2023, with existing cards being replaced by Debit Mastercard upon expiration. Maestro was once widely issued in Estonia too, where debit-card-centered payment culture is well established, but it is now a shrinking brand with a dwindling number of remaining cards.

As a result, making Maestro the centerpiece of a new payment strategy is not recommended; it makes more sense to position it purely as a complementary method that prevents payment failures for customers who still hold a card within its validity period. Keep Debit Mastercard and Visa-affiliated cards, bank-link transfers, and wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay as your primary methods in the Estonian market, and take an approach where Maestro is simply left open for acceptance.

When an existing Maestro cardholder pays online, they go through the same approval process as a general card, and since it's an EEA-issued card, additional 3DS2 authentication may be required under PSD2's SCA (Strong Customer Authentication). However, Maestro has historically been a brand whose online payment support varied by issuing bank, so the actual scope of acceptance needs technical confirmation before integration. Hecto Financial receives the approved payment in euros.

Integrating through Hecto Financial lets a domestic corporation consider whether Maestro can be included as a complementary option on top of its existing card acceptance line, without a local contract in Estonia. As it's a shrinking brand, actual support eligibility and terms (settlement cycle, fees, currency options) require confirmation with Hecto Financial's sales team before signing a contract.

• Business registration country

  Confirm contract eligibility based on domestic business registration

• Sales channel

  The integration method and priority vary depending on your online sales channel mix—owned mall, open marketplace, mobile app, and so on

• Product category

  Check in advance whether your products fall under categories restricted by Maestro's merchant policy

• EU regulatory compliance

  Confirm compliance with EU payment regulations such as PSD2 and SEPA (see official sources below)

Maestro transaction amounts, like other cards, are received by Hecto Financial in euros (EUR), converted, and paid out to the domestic merchant in whichever of USD, KRW, or JPY was chosen in the contract. The settlement cycle and fee rate follow the contract terms. Refunds after a card has been replaced by Debit Mastercard may require confirming the processing route, and given the possibility of refund requests arising from the EU consumer's 14-day right of withdrawal in distance sales, make sure your refund policy is set up accordingly.

• Eesti Pank (Bank of Estonia)Official information on Estonia's payment systems and related regulations. If this page's content differs from the actual regulations, the official sources take precedence.