# PAN Masking
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-processing-core/documentation/api-basics-section/pan-masking/index.md

The Mastercard Processing API can mask a card's critical fields in the API response, such as PAN. By default, the PAN masking format is the following: the first six and the last four digits are unmasked, and the rest is masked with asterisks. For example, a masked PAN in response may look like this 512345\*\*\*\*\*\*3456.