To join the payments ecosystem
together as the United States moves to a new way to pay with EMV chip cards,
the Smart Card Alliance announced the formation of an independent,
cross-industry organization, the EMV Migration Forum.
The Forum will support the
alignment of the EMV implementation steps required for global payment networks,
regional payment networks, issuers, processors, merchants, and consumers to
move from magnetic stripe technology to EMV contact and contactless technology
in the United States.
Commonly used globally in place of
magnetic stripe, EMV chip technology reduces card fraud resulting from
counterfeit, lost, and stolen cards; provides global interoperability; and
enables safer and smarter transactions across cards, contactless, mobile, and
remote payment channels, the alliance states. American Express, Discover,
MasterCard, and Visa have all announced their plans for moving to an EMV-based
payments infrastructure in the U.S., with payment processor mandates in place
for 2013, and major changes for managing fraud risk set for 2015.
"We have seen in other markets
around the world that cooperation and alignment of all participants' activities
are necessary to ensure that the migration to EMV-enabled cards, devices, and
terminals is efficient, timely, and effective," says Randy Vanderhoof,
executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "Industry stakeholders have
called for a neutral forum to play this role for the U.S. market. By creating
an organization that brings together all of the payments stakeholders who have
a direct role in the EMV migration in the United States, without regard to
their past or present involvement with smart cards or other chip technologies,
the EMV Migration Forum will be able to focus on the needed coordination and
cooperation across the payments landscape."
While part of the Smart Card
Alliance corporate organization, the forum will have a separate membership and
be open to representatives from financial card issuers, payments processors,
merchants, acquirers, payment networks, industry suppliers, and other
constituent groups including payments industry associations to ensure that all
stakeholders in the payment industry are represented.
The EMV Migration Forum will
address topics that require some level of industry cooperation and/or
coordination to migrate successfully to EMV technology in the United States.
Topics and activities that are within the scope of the Forum include:
· Providing guidance on technical issues, consumer
awareness and other non-proprietary issues relating to industry-wide adoption
of EMV.
· Developing best practices and educational
material necessary for successful adoption of EMV-enabled cards, devices, and
terminals within the U.S. market.
· Discussing the coordination of process-related
elements of the payments infrastructure necessary to introduce an EMV-enabled
payment system.
· Discussing and engaging in projects to
facilitate consumer adoption and allow for a more consistent consumer experience.
· Reporting on EMV adoption as it progresses.
"EMV's arrival in the U.S. has
profound implications for issuers, merchants and the entire payments industry.
While the global EMV experience will help, the devil is in the implementation
details and common U.S. approaches will be needed for a smooth EMV transition,"
says George Peabody, Mercator Advisory Group's director of emerging
technologies. "The EMV Migration Forum can speed deployment as well as improve
the return on the considerable EMV investment in the U.S. because the
technology has the potential to do far more than prevent counterfeit card
fraud."
http://www.smartcardalliance.org/articles/2012/07/31/cross-industry-emv-coalition-created-to-support-move-to-chip-based-payments-in-the-u-s
[This article was posted on August 14, 2012, on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com.]
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