U.S. Payments Forum provides resources for new EMV use cases

Amid the proliferation of EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) use cases across North America, the U.S. Payments Forum released guidelines for dual-interface contact/contactless card issuance, Canadian card acceptance and mass transit service implementation. Randy Vanderhoof, director of the U.S. Payments Forum, said the guides, published Oct. 31, 2018, are designed to aid EMV implementation and address frequently asked questions.

"While the U.S. migration to chip payments is moving along smoothly, the forum is continually working to address areas that require cooperation or further implementation guidance as stakeholders introduce new features of the technology," Vanderhoof stated. "These resources directly address questions we have been hearing regarding Canadian chip card acceptance and provide guidance for issuers implementing dual-interface contactless and contact cards."

Dual-interface issuance, implementation

Vanderhoof believes speed and convenience are the primary drivers of dual-interface card adoption and pointed out that "tap and go" is especially popular in the transit sector, where contactless chip cards provide fast offline data authentication (ODA) to enable travelers to rapidly advance through gates and turnstiles.

Because ODA can quickly determine a payment card's authenticity before allowing a cardholder to pass through a gate, it can increase speed and efficiency in mass transit environments, according to the forum's new whitepaper, titled Dual-Interface Card Personalization. The resource explains nuances between EMV contact and dual-interface personalization; Forum representatives advise issuers to consult their payment networks for additional guidance.

The forum additionally noted that dual-interface adoption will help pave the way for mobile wallet adoption in the United States, where most merchants have set a zero-floor-limit for EMV transactions. "What this means is that the vast majority of chip transactions are authorized online in real time or use deferred authorization techniques during network outages," the authors wrote. "As a result, many cards have been issued without support for offline data authentication (ODA), with card authentication instead being solely undertaken as part of the online authorization when a transaction is sent online."

Accepting Canadian cards

Problems that arise due to differences between U.S. and Canadian chip cards, such as U.S. merchants incorrectly applying Application Identifier (AID) at the POS, was the basis for creating Canadian Card Technical Acceptance, a new white paper developed by the U.S. Payments Forum to clarify the correct approach to application selection when processing Canadian chip cards.

The authors said the report's recommendations are network agnostic and include adjustments to preferred AID selection. The free guide describes Canadian card types and proposes optional approaches for U.S. merchants to "properly originate transactions from Canadian-issued cards."

Mass transit use cases

The U.S. Payments Forum and the Secure Technology Alliance will host a Transit Payments Workshop Nov. 5, 2018, at the Hyatt Lodge in Oak Brook, Ill. Forum and alliance members, non-members, and transit agency representatives are invited to join the one-day event. Agenda items include panel and roundtable discussions and technical requirements for transit open payments and payment network transit solutions.

Event organizers said payments industry stakeholders will be among a diverse group of transit workshop attendees, including payment card brands, financial institutions, merchants, processors, acquirers, regional debit networks, device manufacturers and industry associations.

"The meeting will also foster the progress being made by the working committees formed to address issues that require broad cooperation and communication among different stakeholders," organizers stated. "Multiple breakout rooms will be used to support working sessions for attendees to explore in more detail the key challenges that the payments industry faces in moving to EMV and to discuss the implementation of other new and emerging payments technologies."

The transit event precedes a two-day all-member meeting, also to be held at the Oakbrook, Ill. Hyatt Lodge on Nov. 6 to 7, 2018. The meeting will provide opportunities for merchants, issuers and payments stakeholders who are forum members to collaborate on effective EMV implementations, forum representatives stated.

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