4 Significant Factors That Will Determine the Course of EMV Migration

There are many issues regarding the onset of EMV into the US payments infrastructure that have yet to be ironed out and/or fully understood. But there are four right now that stand out, and on which the shape of the U.S. EMV implementation rests.  Discussions over the last year have turned up a raft of issues that have to be resolved.  But these four stand out because how they are decided will ultimately help determine what EMV will look like here.

Over the coming weeks, EMV Update will explore these four factors along with others that emerge as the U.S. payments industry continues its evolution into the realm of smart card technology. 

Here are the four issues EMV Update sees as most significant in determining how EMV will roll out in the U.S.:

1.       U.S. Common Debit AID –This is the chip’s payment application that identifies the available networks to which an authorization request can be routed.  It’s up to the merchant to actually put the transaction into the routing infrastructure.  Four viable applications are available for use under different licensing agreements from either the major card brands like Visa or MasterCard or a consortium called CommonCo.  CommonCo. was formed by 10 ten of the 18 PIN-debit networks (PDNs) in the U.S. under their affiliation with the Secure Remote Payment Council or SRPc.  Issuers have been waiting for one of these applications providers to produce a set of specifications.  To date, a spec is missing and, with it, the pathway for implementing PIN debit in the U.S. under EMV.

2.       The EMV Business Case – Many of the merchants who must bear the brunt of EMV’s implementation costs, are saying they don’t have the kind of fraud that justifies EMV’s costs.  They’re essentially saying they’re indifferent regarding the liability shift.  This issue will be explored further in coming weeks.

3.       Card Not Present Fraud – Every country that has implemented EMV has watched their CNP fraud grow exponentially.  To date, there doesn’t seem to be a solution.  But is there?  Can we develop one?  With whose help?  Another hot topic.

4.       Contactless – Is there a role in EMV for contactless technology?  Can we find ATMs in the world that can be activated with a contactless EMV card?  And if the answer is ‘no,’ what does that mean for Near Field Communications technology?  For a future blog post.

EMV implementation in the U.S. leaves much to be discussed in future posts.  C’mon back. We’ll give you an honest analysis of what’s happening with these four issues and how they’ll impact what may or may not be in your wallet in the coming years.http://www.cvent.com/events/emv-migration-forum-meeting-june-13/custom-19-403fa5c3460d4d8e81eb221ee1b2a08f.aspx