EMV Migration Forum promotes language consistency

A new document issued in February 2013 by the EMV Migration Forum's Communication and Education Working Committee defines and standardizes Europay/MasterCard/Visa (EMV) terminology for industry stakeholders and consumers in the United States.

Randy Vanderhoof, Acting Director of the EMV Migration Forum and Executive Director of the Smart Card Alliance – which created the 120-member EMV Migration Forum – said the committee's work ensures that terms used in educational materials are clear and uniform. The document also provides a deeper understanding of the EMV protocol, software and hardware and how EMV promotes a more secure payments system.

Merchant acquirers are rushing to implement EMV software, processing infrastructure and hardware to support acquirer mandates effective this year. The push to EMV chip-based technology in the United States is guided by EMV road maps issued and supported by Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide, American Express and Discover for EMV implementation. The card companies plan to shift liability for card-present fraud to merchants who are not EMV compliant by October 2015.

Call for standardization

"There is a tendency among people in the EMV industry to over use acronyms when talking about EMV and payments," Vanderhoof said. "When they use those terms every day, they forget merchants and financial issuers don't use those terms every day. We have to be clear about what we are talking about."

The new document also defines key acronyms common to EMV. "The person who led the effort, Sue Ross from MasterCard, is very good at coming up with language everyone could understand," Vanderhoof noted. "There were enough knowledgeable people on the committee to make sure that nothing was published that was not fundamentally accurate."

Vanderhoof called the definitions an educational resource for everyday businesspeople and a guide for media professionals. In addition to defining recommended standardized terms and associated acronyms, the document also covers "also known as" terms, primary industry stakeholders, as well as cardholder or customer definitions of key terms.

According to the EMV Migration Forum, The Standardization of Terminology document will be updated as needed and can be downloaded at www.emv-connection.com/standardization-of-terminology .

Editorial Note:

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