PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., April 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Following its March meeting, the EMV Migration Forum announced significant progress in Working Committee projects to support the U.S. payments ecosystem's move to EMV chip payments. The Forum also announced newly-elected officers to lead the Forum steering committee and projects in 2013/2014.
The EMV Migration Forum, an independent cross-industry organization, was formed to address issues that require broad cooperation and coordination across the payments space in order to successfully introduce secure EMV contact and contactless technology in the United States. Forum membership has grown to 133 member organizations from the entire payments industry, including global payment brands, financial institutions, merchants, processors, acquirers, regional debit networks, industry suppliers and industry associations.
"The EMV Migration Forum offers an unprecedented opportunity - to have a voice in the most significant change to the U.S. payments system in our lifetime. It has been overwhelmingly embraced by the industry," said Randy Vanderhoof, acting director of the EMV Migration Forum. "We know it will not be without its challenges, as we've seen already with the task of making EMV debit transactions Durbin-compliant. But what we've also seen is an industry ready and willing to react strongly to challenges by discussing, strategizing about their issues, and offering constructive solutions in the Forum. This is the true spirit of the Forum, and the work accomplished so far has been significant."
The newly-elected EMV Migration Forum Steering Committee officers are:
-- Chair: John Drechny, Walmart
-- Vice Chair: Dan Heimann, ACI Worldwide
-- Secretary: Patty Walters, Vantiv
-- Treasurer: Laura Ermer, McDonald's U.S.A.
Working Committee Progress
The four Working Committees - Communications and Education, Debit, U.S. Coordination, and Certification and Testing - are integral in carrying out the work and vision of the Forum. Over 290 individuals from 91 Forum member organizations are active in the Working Committees. Each Committee reported on its progress to the 200+ attendees at the March meeting.
Debit and EMV Working Committee. The Committee met following the announcement from the Secure Remote Payment Council (SRPc) that ten debit networks have agreed to adopt a common U.S. debit application identifier (AID) and work with Discover Financial Services to license the D-Payment Application Specification (D-PAS) as the foundation of the common U.S. debit chip payment solution. At the meeting, the Committee continued the debit discussion around what POS and ATM requirements are for debit, how multiple AIDs would be used, and how different debit scenarios would be implemented.
Communication and Education Working Committee. The Committee has recently completed its EMV Stakeholder Survey and is making progress quantifying and qualifying the results to help understand perspectives on EMV migration from processors, merchants and issuers. The Committee has multiple projects active to develop and recommend best practices for communications and education on EMV migration.
U.S. Coordination Working Committee. The Committee is currently exploring ways of generating efficient and consistent operations and messaging across the industry through a potential "Phase 1" EMV rollout.
Certification and Testing Working Committee. The Committee is currently working on three projects focusing on what the current payments certification and testing requirements are in the U.S., how these requirements will change for issuers, merchants and acquirers with chip-enabled EMV payments, and what scenarios will require re-certification.
The meeting also hosted breakout sessions for ATM, issuer and merchant special interest groups to facilitate discussion of stakeholder perspectives, as well as educational sessions on EMV technology and transaction processes.
EMV Migration Forum meetings are for member organizations and industry associations representing groups of stakeholder members only. The next Forum meeting is scheduled for April 29 during the 2013 ETA Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Membership information, member lists, and membership applications are available at http://www.emv-connection.com/membership-information/.
About U.S. EMV Migration
Commonly used globally in place of magnetic stripe, EMV chip technology drastically reduces card fraud in a face-to-face card-present environment; provides global interoperability; and enables safer and smarter transactions across cards and contactless channels. American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa have all announced their plans for supporting an EMV-based payments infrastructure in the U.S., with acquirer processor readiness mandates to support chip data in place for 2013, and liability shifts for managing fraud risk in a face-to-face environment set for 2015.
About the EMV Migration Forum
The EMV Migration Forum is a cross-industry body focused on supporting an alignment of the EMV implementation steps required for global and regional payment networks, issuers, processors, merchants, and consumers to ensure a successful introduction of more secure EMV contact and contactless technology in the United States. The focus of the Forum is to address topics that require some level of industry cooperation and/or coordination to migrate successfully to EMV technology in the United States. For more information on the EMV Migration Forum, please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-emv-migration-forum.
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