Friday, February 6, 2015
In her keynote address, Kimberly Lawrence, Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Initiatives at Visa, predicted that up to 575 million EMV cards will be issued by the end of 2015, and that 71 percent of credit cards, 41 percent of debit cards, and 47 percent of credit card readers will be EMV enabled. Lawrence noted that 78,800 merchant locations have already implemented EMV technology.
"We really are on the road to EMV everywhere," was the takeaway from MasterCard’s James Anderson, during his keynote address. Anderson, who is the company’s Group Head and Senior Vice President for Mobile and Emerging Payments, based his statement on the U.S. EMV migration that is already underway and expected to gain speed in the coming year.
Anderson cited chip technology as:
Karen Czack, Vice President of Global Chip Products at AmEx, advocated dual-interface (contact and contactless) EMV chip payment cards for speed and flexibility across retail and transportation channels. Czack has seen widespread adoption of contactless payments in other markets, including the U.K., where contactless accounts for 73 percent of consumer wallet share.
Czack noted that all AmEx card products exist in chip format and are available to card members upon request. Additionally, the AmEx Small Merchant EMV Assistance Program provides a $100 incentive to small and midsize merchants that implement EMV.
Dual-interface cards are especially important in transportation, where a majority of consumers are using contactless cards worldwide. Mass transit adoption of EMV has been a leading topic over the years at the Smart Card Alliance Summit, which has included separate mobile payments and transportation tracks.
When he presented at the 2014 summit, Michael Dinning, U.S. Department of Transportation at Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, said consumers “spend more on transportation than they do on food,” and stressed the "need for collaboration across industries to get to the same place at the same time."
Troy Bernard, Discover’s Director and Global Head of Advanced Payments, focused on how emerging payment technologies are improving risk management. During his presentation, Bernard disclosed that Discover is enabling solutions across multiple commerce channels and issuing EMV chip cards with additional rollouts planned throughout the year.
Discover’s ongoing commitment to technology innovation is reflected in its “central platform where partners can go for emerging payments solutions.” Discover promotes chip and PIN as best practice and plans to incent and reward its use among brick-and-mortar retailers.
Randy Vanderhoof, Executive Director of the SCA, suggested 2015 might be the year when “tokenization really takes off,” which he called a positive development for the payments industry.
A subgroup of The Mobile Payments Industry Work Group is developing a white paper on the emerging tokenization landscape. The report, due out in April or May of 2015, will feature interviews with mobile, payments and merchant industry stakeholders.
Committee member Dave Lott of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta noted many differing views among those interviewed on approaches to standardized tokenization in the consumer marketplace. Lott acknowledged that most merchants would prefer to implement EMV all at once rather than phasing in new technologies over time.
However, most payment specialists interviewed suggested that existing payments schemes, coupled with the dynamic nature of emerging technologies, will continue to affect EMV migration while complicating efforts to achieve a universal standard of end-to-end encryption and tokenization.
Carolyn Balfany, Senior Vice President and Group Head at MasterCard noted consumer demand is growing for chip cards, with 63 percent of consumers wanting chip cards immediately and 87 percent willing to transition to EMV in the near term.
Editor's Note:
The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
