Cross-Industry EMV Coalition Created to Support Move to Chip-based Payments in the U.S.

Forum to work towards a collaborative, timely, and effective transition to EMV payments

Princeton Junction, N.J., December 19, 2012–To join the payments ecosystem together as the United States moves to a new way to pay with EMV chip cards, the Smart Card Alliance today announced the formation of an independent, cross-industry organization, the EMV Migration Forum. The Forum will support the alignment of the EMV implementation steps required for global payment networks, regional payment networks, issuers, processors, merchants, and consumers to successfully move from magnetic stripe technology to secure EMV contact and contactless technology in the United States.

Commonly used globally in place of magnetic stripe¹, EMV chip technology drastically reduces card fraud resulting from counterfeit, lost and stolen cards; provides global interoperability; and enables safer and smarter transactions across cards, contactless, mobile, and remote payment channels. American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa have all announced their plans for moving to an EMV-based payments infrastructure in the U.S., with payment processor mandates in place for 2013, and major changes for managing fraud risk set for 2015.

“We have seen in other markets around the world that cooperation and alignment of all participants’ activities are necessary to ensure that the migration to EMV-enabled cards, devices, and terminals is efficient, timely, and effective,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “Industry stakeholders have called for a neutral forum to play this role for the U.S. market. By creating an organization that brings together all of the payments stakeholders who have a direct role in the EMV migration in the U.S., without regard to their past or present involvement with smart cards or other chip technologies, the EMV Migration Forum will be able to focus on the needed coordination and cooperation across the payments landscape.”

While part of the Smart Card Alliance corporate organization, the EMV Migration Forum will have a separate membership and be open to representatives from financial card issuers, payments processors, merchants, acquirers, payment networks, industry suppliers and other constituent groups including payments industry associations to ensure that all stakeholders in the payment industry are represented.

The EMV Migration Forum will address topics that require some level of industry cooperation and/or coordination to migrate successfully to EMV technology in the United States. Topics and activities that are in the scope of the Forum include:

  • Providing guidance on technical issues, consumer awareness and other non-proprietary issues relating to industry-wide adoption of EMV
  • Developing best practices and educational material necessary for successful adoption of EMV-enabled cards, devices, and terminals within the U.S. market
  • Discussing the coordination of process-related elements of the payments infrastructure necessary to introduce an EMV-enabled payment system
  • Discussing and engaging in projects to facilitate consumer adoption and allow for a more consistent consumer experience
  • Reporting on EMV adoption as it progresses

“The Alliance is taking this step to create the EMV Migration Forum to leverage the strong collaborative environment around chip-enabled payments we’ve built within our membership and extend that environment to the broader issuers, merchants and consumer market. Our current members have been very supportive and eager to establish an EMV-focused organization to assist the payments industry with this all-important migration,” said Smart Card Alliance Board Chair Willy Dommen, Accenture.

Julie Conroy McNelley, research director for Aite Group’s retail banking practice, said, “The cross-industry collaboration that this initiative represents will be welcome for all stakeholders in the value chain. Merchants and issuers have been looking for unified direction and guidance, and this announcement promises to meet that need.”

“EMV’s arrival in the U.S. has profound implications for issuers, merchants and the entire payments industry. While the global EMV experience will help, the devil is in the implementation details and common U.S. approaches will be needed for a smooth EMV transition,” said George Peabody, Mercator Advisory Group’s director of emerging technologies. “The EMV Migration Forum can speed deployment as well as improve the return on the considerable EMV investment in the U.S. because the technology has the potential to do far more than prevent counterfeit card fraud.”

To launch the formation of the new EMV Migration Forum organization, the Smart Card Alliance has scheduled its first meeting for September 12-13, 2012, at MasterCard Worldwide headquarters in Purchase, New York. During this initial meeting, participants will learn about member benefits and member participation in Forum governance, discuss the priorities for organization activities and launch its first working committee projects.

Additional information about the EMV Migration Forum organization and membership, including a convenient Frequently Asked Questions document, is available at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-emv-migration-forum.

Resources

In addition to payments resources, the Smart Card Alliance offers resources and education on identity, healthcare, transportation, mobile and NFC, and access technologies.

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 move from magnetic stripe technology to 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.

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.

Contact

Deb Montner
Montner & Associates Tech PR Agency
203-226-9290
[email protected]

What the payments industry is saying about the creation of the EMV Migration Forum

Payment Brands and Card Issuers

American Express

“American Express is looking forward to collaborating with the Smart Card Alliance and other industry players to advance the successful rollout of EMV technology in the U.S. By working together, we will be able to support a smooth EMV migration process in the U.S., and at the same time, we will be laying the groundwork for a global, inter-operable payments environment.”–Suzan Kereere, Senior Vice President and General Manager, American Express, Global Network Business

Chase Card Services

“Being the first credit card issuer to offer EMV cards to our customers, we believe that it is more important than ever to align the payments ecosystem.”–Dori Skelding Business Operations Manager Sr. at Chase Card Services

Discover

“Discover is committed to collaborating with all stakeholder groups to ensure the road towards EMV implementation is completed thoughtfully, within appropriate timeframes and in a holistic manner. Given the vast number of payments players involved, over 100 acquirers, 5,000+ banks, 9 million merchants, and “Durbin”, the U.S. EMV migration is poised to be the most complex of any EMV migration globally, so we look forward to gaining cohesive momentum through this forum.”–Troy Bernard, Director–Head of Global Chip Technology, Discover

MasterCard

“Today, the U.S. payments industry is taking another major step forward toward the successful migration to EMV. Since introducing our roadmap earlier this year, MasterCard has emphasized the need for alignment and committed to working with all partners across the industry such that the maximum value of the migration to EMV may be realized. We thank the Smart Card Alliance for stepping forward and facilitating the effort to objectively bring all of the industry parties together. Our vision of a world beyond cash will continue to be enhanced by issuer, merchant and consumer adoption of this upgrade of the market’s payment technology. We look forward to hosting the group’s first meeting in September and further collaborating with our industry partners.”–Carolyn Balfany, Senior Vice President, U.S. Customer Delivery, MasterCard

Visa Inc.

“Visa has worked across the payments community to encourage chip adoption in the U.S. and was the first payment network to announce a U.S. chip roadmap in August 2011. Our goal is to guide the successful adoption of EMV chip technology throughout the U.S. marketplace, and the EMV Migration Forum offers an important new channel for extending collaborative efforts.”–Simon Hurry, Senior Business Leader, Visa Inc.

Industry Associations

ATM Industry Association (ATMIA)

“The impact of EMV migration on the U.S. ATM industry will be quite significant, and is at the top of the list of our member concerns. ATMIA sees participation in the EMV Migration Forum as the best way to stay on top of this critical issue and keep our members informed about developing requirements and best practices. We also hope to influence the dialogue in a positive way, so that the unique concerns of ATM users, deployers, and owners are addressed.”–David Tente, U.S. Executive Director, ATMIA

Secure Remote Payment Council

“Chip and PIN deployment in the US will have a major impact on how payments are conducted. This deployment will have a better chance of succeeding if the brand companies work together with all stakeholders to understand their challenges and endeavor to accommodate them. The Secure Remote Payment Council appreciates the opportunity to participate in this forum and contribute to the creation of a consensus roadmap. We look forward to an open, frank dialogue that will create a deployment that maintains payment network choice, fosters a robust competitive environment, ensures regulatory compliance and cultivates realistic and rational migration milestones.”–Paul Tomasofsky, President and Executive Director, Secure Remote Payment Council

Payment Processors

First Data

“The migration from mag stripe to chip-enabled payments in the U.S. is an industry-wide undertaking that will require collaboration and cooperation among all participants in the payments ecosystem. The EMF and its members will help everyone, including consumers, understand the impact of the transition.”–Dom Morea, SVP, Advanced Solutions and Innovation, First Data

TSYS

“TSYS strongly supports the Smart Card Alliance efforts to establish this new cross-industry group focused specifically on EMV migration in the U.S. We appreciate the proactive role the group has taken and recognize the importance to the payments industry of having this collaborative environment. TSYS is looking forward to actively participating as we have done in the EMV efforts to-date in the U.S. and with the EMV migration which has occurred in other countries.”–Sarah Hartman, Senior Director of Payment Solutions, TSYS

Industry Suppliers

Gemalto

“Gemalto is committed to enabling security for consumers, processors, and merchants. As the world’s leading provider of EMV migration services, from consulting, to cards, to mobile applications, we are proud to participate in the EMV Migration Forum. The move to a more secure payments system will be a complex undertaking, requiring cooperation among all organizations involved. With expertise from across the industry, the EMV Migration Forum promises to be an outstanding resource, creating an optimal environment for organizations focused on transforming payments in the United States.”–Philippe Benitez, VP Marketing North America, Secure Transactions, Gemalto

Giesecke & Devrient (G&D)

“G&D actively supports the Smart Card Alliance initiative to establish an EMV Migration Forum. We are confident that an industry wide collaboration will create a problem-solving environment for all stakeholders, driving consistent and structured EMV adoption in United States. As a global market leader in EMV technology, G&D will promote best practices and recommend standardization and guidelines in issuing secure payment credentials.”–Brian Russell, G&D’s Sr. Vice President of Payment and Transit

Identive Group

“The use of smart cards has been so well established in Europe for many years. As an organization that operates both in the U.S. and Europe, we are delighted that EMV is coming to the U.S. and believe that EMV along with the other smart card technology like NFC, will enhance security and privacy for U.S. consumers in payment and many other transactions.”–Joseph Tassone, Executive VP Technology & Product Management, Identive Group

Infineon Technologies

“Formation of a cross-industry group to coordinate EMV implementation in the U.S. is an important step in the evolution of the payments industry. As the leading supplier of secure smart card ICs that meet the requirements of EMV programs around the world, we look forward to contributing our knowledge to the collaborative effort of the EMV Migration Forum.”–Joerg Borchert, Vice President of Chip Card & Security for Infineon Technologies North America Corp.

Ingenico

“The migration to and adoption of a new EMV chip-based payment system in the United States will be a complex and multi-year process. It’ll certainly require a collaborative approach among all stakeholders of the payment ecosystem including – card issuers, acquirers, POS manufacturers, regulators, merchants and consumers. The success and speed of the adoption of the new payment system will depend on how quickly the stakeholders can coordinate their efforts needed to facilitate the transition. As one of the members of the Leadership Council of the Smart Card Alliance, we welcome the creation of the EMV Migration Forum which will definitely serve as the linking pin to create a centralized hub for a constructive dialog among the stakeholders leading to a successful adoption of EMV in the U.S.”–Greg Boardman, Senior Vice President of Product and Development at Ingenico, North America.

Oberthur Technologies

“As members of the Smart Card Alliance since 2003, a leading global expert in EMV products and services, and the largest provider of EMV cards in the U.S., Oberthur Technologies is excited to be involved in the creation and launch of the EMV Migration Forum. The insight and experience of all expected forum participants will help ensure a smooth and effective EMV migration for the U.S., thus creating enhanced security for payments cards and global interoperability.”–James M. Sufrin, VP Financial Service & Transit, North America, Oberthur Technologies

Industry Consultants and Integrators

Capgemini

“Time and time again, the Smart Card Alliance provides value and enables the payments industry to move forward. EMV is a perfect example. There are a myriad of questions, ranging from debit routing to POS messaging, which require cross-industry collaboration. I am so happy that the Alliance was able to take the reins on this important initiative.”–Deborah Baxley, Principal, Capgemini

Contact

Deb Montner
Megan Shamas
Montner & Associates Tech PR Agency
203-226-9290
[email protected]
[email protected]

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