PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., Feb. 21, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Smart Card Alliance Payments, Mobile and Transportation Councils had a successful year in 2016 with strong member participation, quality deliverables, and significant headway in promoting the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology in the payments space. To kick off 2017, the councils today announced the newly-elected chairs to lead activities through 2018.
“Over the past year we’ve seen some substantial developments in the payments space, from the progress in the migration to EMV to a myriad of new mobile payments solutions,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “In 2016, these payments-focused councils have provided a lot of education and guidance on how smart card technology can offer the necessary security for a variety of use cases across the payments, mobile and transportation ecosystems.”
Payments Council
The Payments Council focuses on facilitating the adoption of chip-enabled payments technologies and associated applications in the U.S., and works closely with U.S. Payments Forum to educate stakeholders on the security benefits of EMV chip technology.
The council’s 2016 projects focused on promoting contactless EMV payments for issuers and merchants, including the “Contactless EMV Payments: Benefits for Consumers, Merchants and Issuers” white paper; the Contactless EMV Payments webinar series, “Opportunities for Merchants” and “Opportunities for Issuers;” updated “Contactless Payment Security Q&A;” and “Contactless Payments in the U.S.: Guides for Merchants and Issuers” infographics. The council also hosted a pre-conference workshop at the Smart Card Alliance’s annual Payments Summit, “The Changing Payments Landscape in the U.S.: Strategic Considerations for Issuers and Merchants.”
The council plans to develop projects on other new technologies, such as tokenization and blockchain-based applications for 2017. With new cross-collaboration policies with the U.S. Payments Forum, the council hopes to attract contributions from an even broader set of industry participants for its projects next year.
To head the Payments Council activities in the coming year, the council has elected its 2017-2018 steering committee. New officers are:
- Co-chair: Jack Jania, Gemalto
- Co-chair: Oliver Manahan, Infineon Technologies
- Vice chair: Nick Pisarev, Giesecke & Devrient
- Secretary: Jamie Topolski, Fiserv
Mobile Council
The Mobile Council, previously called the Mobile and NFC Council, developed a new charter in 2016 to take on projects covering all interface technologies and security approaches. In addition to providing resources and education on near field communications (NFC) technology, the council will also focus on mobile identity authentication, tokenization, credential provisioning, and the use of the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) as it moves into 2017.
In 2016, the council hosted a webinar “EMV Tokenization,” and has many activities in progress for 2017 on topics ranging from mobile identity authentication to a primer on TEE. The council also maintains relationships with other industry groups, including GlobalPlatform and the NFC Forum.
The Mobile Council has elected its 2017-2018 steering committee. New officers are:
- Co-chair: Sadiq Mohammed, Mastercard
- Co-chair: Sree Swaminathan, First Data
- Vice chair: Damon Kachur, Giesecke & Devrient
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.
Council activities in 2016 included a “Reference Enterprise Architecture for Transit Open Payment System” white paper, which provides a model for implementing a seamless fare payment system that traverses transportation modes, jurisdictions, markets and technologies; and an update to the “EMV and Parking” white paper in collaboration with the International Parking Institute (IPI), which provides current information on EMV chip technology and refreshed scenarios covering the critical aspects of deploying EMV-compliant solutions within the parking infrastructure.
In 2017, the council will continue to focus on evolving payments architectures, including open payments, and the convergence of multimodal payments in transit.
The Transportation Council has elected its 2017-2018 steering committee. New officers are:
- Chair: Jerry Kane, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)
- Vice chair – transit: Tina Morch-Pierre, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)
- Vice chair – parking: Michael Hughes, Vantiv
- Vice chair – tolling: Carol Kuester, Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA)
Looking to 2017, the Payments, Mobile and Transportation Councils will be participating in the 2017 Payments Summit, being held March 27-30 in Orlando, Florida. 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.