Discover unveiled a 2013 EMV [chip-card] mandate for acquirers and direct-connect merchants in the United States, Canada, and Mexico intended to streamline certification and deployment efforts and enable a manageable transition for all parties involved, including issuers, merchants, and acquirers.

To date, Discover has prioritized its global EMV-deployment efforts toward markets which are mandated or have significant chip-card technology presence already. Discover has deployed D-PAS, the company’s EMV-compliant payment specification, for the past three years and already has over one million cards in market among international issuers.

Deployment efforts continue in 2012, with close to 100 issuing and acquiring deployments slated across the Diners Club, PULSE, and Discover card networks.

“Enabling EMV in North America is a significant step in Discover’s approach toward emerging payments, and clearly a necessary one,” says Troy Bernard, global head of Chip Payment Technology at Discover. “We believe each payment solution should enable choice and security within its transaction environment, which is why when it comes to EMV, we’re giving stakeholders choice and flexibility on how they implement it.”

Discover’s approach to EMV is both universal and choice-centric, meaning the company will not restrict any channel, verification process, or transaction type. Discover will support:

•    All card authentication channels—including online and offline.

•    All cardholder verification methods—including both chip and PIN or chip and signature transactions.

•    All commerce channels—including contact and contactless (which includes mobile).

Discover’s EMV deployment efforts are already underway domestically. In January 2012, Discover processed its first U.S. EMV card transactions at enabled Walmart locations. Walmart is certified to process D-PAS in both the United States and Canada.


http://investorrelations.discoverfinancial.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=204177&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=1673070

 

 

[This article was posted on March 20, 2012, on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com.]    

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