EMVCo enhances touchless commerce

Recent updates to EMVCo specifications will support new contactless authentication methods, enabling merchants and consumers to securely transact on smartphones, EMVCo representatives stated. The global technical body summarized 2021 milestones in a newly published annual report, indicating it will continue efforts to make contact and contactless smartcard payments more secure and seamless in 2022.

EMVCo Board of Managers Chair Jianhua Ni commended EMVCo members for supporting consumers, businesses and economies throughout pandemic-related challenges as the payments industry pivoted to meet changing consumer payment preferences.

In a Feb. 15, 2022 statement on the evolving payment specifications, Ni pointed out that EMVCo stakeholders collaborated virtually throughout 2021 on impactful EMV initiatives, which he cited as follows:

• Enhancing EMV 3-D Secure (EMV 3DS) Specifications to support more secure and convenient e-commerce authentication.

• Advancements to the EMV Chip Contact Specifications to support Elliptic Curve Cryptography, ensuring robust security can be maintained in new payment innovations.

• Ongoing efforts to explore how EMV Specifications can work together to enable seamless and secure payments in new scenarios and use cases.

"With consumers and businesses of all sizes shifting away from cash and towards card-based and digital payments, EMV technologies continue to be integral to global commerce, providing a common and reliable foundation for the rapid development and deployment of advanced products and services that deliver trusted and convenient payments around the world," Ni said.

Fighting fraud

EMVCo representatives stated they will continue to fight payment fraud and reduce checkout friction to enable businesses to deliver safe, convenient ecommerce solutions. For example, EMV 3-D Secure (EMV 3DS) helps users identify fraudulent card payments quickly and accurately, enabling issuers and e-commerce merchants to deliver safe, easy checkouts while preventing fraud, they added.

In October 2021, EMVCo released EMV 3DS 2.3, an updated version designed to improve fraud fighting capabilities for issuers, acquirers and merchants, which also helps improve the consumer payment experience across multiple channels and devices, EMVCo representatives noted.

2022 agenda

Ni further noted that EMVCo plans to join forces with other international technical bodies to provide a common foundation for developing new payment methods that give consumers more ways to pay and facilitate anywhere, anytime commerce in stores and online.

"As we consider technical initiatives and plans for 2022 – such as support for wireless payments and using EMV QR codes to trigger the use of EMV Secure Remote Commerce (EMV SRC) – key to our efforts is ongoing participation from payments industry stakeholders around the globe," Ni said.

Ni summarized areas of focus for the coming year as follows:

1. Further enhancements to the EMV Chip specification, which enables millions of payments to work seamlessly and securely worldwide every day.

2. Advancing specification activity and testing [programs] for EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) and EMV 3-D Secure (EMV 3DS) to reduce remote payment fraud.

3. Critiquing existing and established technologies to create new ways to pay. This includes evaluating the role wireless technologies could play and exploring the best way to interact with merchants and consumers when using smartphones as acceptance devices.

4. Continued collaboration with technical bodies and industry associations – such as FIDO Alliance, W3C and the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) – to drive delivery and [optimize] the outstanding expertise within the technology and payment communities.

A copy of the report is available at bit.ly/3Ihf6Lt .

For additional comments from Jianhua Ni, chair of the EMVCo Board of Managers, visit: bit.ly/3s99D3C .

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