PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., Jan. 13, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Smart Card Alliance Payments, Mobile and NFC, and Transportation Councils made significant headway in 2014, educating the industry on the security benefits of smart card technology for a wide variety of payment applications and use cases. The councils today announced the newly-elected 2015-2016 chairs to lead projects in the coming year.
"2014 was a particularly exciting year for payments, especially with developments in NFC, the growing popularity of mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Softcard and others, and the acceleration in the migration to EMV chip payments," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "These councils do significant work to educate on the impacts and best practices for implementing new payment and security technologies."
Payments Council
The Payments Council focuses on facilitating the adoption of chip-enabled payments and payment applications in the U.S. and works closely with the EMV Migration Forum to educate stakeholders on the security benefits of EMV chip technology.
Throughout 2014, the council focused efforts on educating the market on methods to reduce payments fraud through the development of two white papers: "Card-Not-Present Fraud: A Primer on Trends and Transaction Authentication Processes," and "Technologies for Payment Fraud Prevention: EMV, Encryption and Tokenization." The first white paper highlights the impact of, and need to further address card-not-present fraud in conjunction with migration to chip payments in the U.S., while the second paper describes the role of EMV chip, encryption and tokenization for securing the payments infrastructure and preventing payment fraud.
The council also participated in the Smart Card Alliance's 2014 Payments Summit workshop, "The Changing U.S. Payments Landscape: The Impact of EMV and Mobile on the Payments Acceptance Infrastructure," in collaboration with the Mobile and NFC and Transportation Councils.
To head the Payments Council activities in the coming year, the council has elected the following 2015-2016 leadership:
- Co-chairs: Jack Jania, Gemalto and Oliver Manahan, MasterCard Worldwide
- Vice chair: Deborah Baxley, Capgemini
"The Payments Council has been at the forefront of this very exciting year in the U.S. payments industry, in which significant progress was made in moving to a new payments infrastructure with chip and NFC mobile payments," said Jania. "In 2015, we will strive to make the Payments Council the go-to resource for guidance and educational materials on the technologies that can help to secure the payments infrastructure."
"The collaborative environment of the Payments Council has helped us to build educational materials on the value that chip – a proven, scalable technology – brings to payments and steps to make the U.S. migration to the technology successful," said Manahan. "The Payments Council will continue to work with all stakeholders to help move the industry towards successful implementation of chip payments, not only with card payments but with mobile as well."
Mobile and NFC Council
The Mobile and NFC Council activities help to accelerate the practical use of NFC applications such as payments, loyalty and marketing. In 2014, the council put forward workshops, white papers and other educational industry resources to discuss and promote common mobile and NFC standards and best practices.
Council activities in 2014 included a workshop at the annual Payments Summit, "The Changing U.S. Payments Landscape: The Impact of EMV and Mobile on the Payments Acceptance Infrastructure," in collaboration with the Payments and Transportation Councils; an ISC West workshop, "Mobile Devices and Identity and Access Control Applications," in collaboration with the Access Control and Identity Councils; and two white papers, "Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 101: A Technology Primer with Example Use Cases" and "Host Card Emulation (HCE) 101."
The Mobile and NFC Council has elected the following members to lead council activities for 2015-2016:
- Chair: Sadiq Mohammed, MasterCard
- Vice chair: Sree Swaminathan, First Data
- Secretary: Tony Sabetti, Softcard
"Mobile NFC technology can enable fast, secure transactions across a variety of applications – payments, loyalty, identity and access control are some of the possibilities. I am looking forward to continuing to lead the Mobile and NFC Council in its efforts to educate the market on the possibilities for NFC and other mobile technologies in the coming years," said Mohammed.
Transportation Council
The Transportation Council works to accelerate the deployment of standards-based smart card payment programs within the transportation industry through promoting the adoption of interoperable contactless smart card payment systems for transit and other transportation services.
In 2014, the Transportation Council made significant progress on the creation of two white papers that address the impacts of EMV chip technology in the transportation industry, looking at both the transit and parking sectors.
Other projects planned for 2015 include: a workshop on multi-modal convergence of transportation payment systems and travel information and a two-day council event focused on transportation implementation of smart card technology.
Leading the Transportation Council projects in 2015-2016 are:
- Chair: Jerry Kane, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)
- Vice chair, transit: Katina Vaughan, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)
- Vice chair, tolling: Mike Nash, Xerox
- Vice chair, parking: Steven Grant, LTK Engineering Services
"The transit industry has a large task ahead of it with EMV chip migration; at the same time, many agencies are examining or implementing other new technologies like open card payments, mobile payments and mobile ticketing solutions," said Kane. "I am looking forward to taking on this new leadership role in the council and continuing the council's work to provide solid, reliable resources on new payments approaches and technologies for transportation."
Looking to 2015, the Payments, Mobile and NFC, and Transportation councils will participate in the 2015 Payments Summit, being held Feb. 3-5 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Registration, exhibition, agenda and other details can be found at www.scapayments.com.
To learn more about the Smart Card Alliance councils, the newly-elected officers and steering committees and resources available, visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org/activities-councils/.
About the Smart Card Alliance
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.
Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.