EMV advances beyond compliance

Retailers may be moving past the critical first phase of EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) adoption, according to recent studies. A new report published in July 2016 by New York-based CardFlight Inc. used aggregated data to evaluate adoption levels among end users of the company's mobile payments app. The results were better than expected, the company reported.

"Since we were one of the first companies to bring an EMV mobile payment solution to the U.S. market, we feel it's important to collect data and share it with the rest of the industry," said Derek Webster, CardFlight founder and Chief Executive Officer.

The CardFlight EMV Migration Tracker assessed the impact of EMV chip card migration on individual businesses and the retail community. Following are some highlights from the report:

• Chip cards represented more than 70 percent of consumer credit cards processed by CardFlight merchants.

• 94 percent of American Express Co. cards were chip cards, the highest percentage of all payment card brands processed by CardFlight merchants.

• More than 64 percent of CardFlight merchants use EMV-compliant payment card readers, more than three times the national average.

• 78 percent of CardFlight merchants with average tickets of $200 and higher were EMV-enabled.

• 48 percent of merchants with average ticket sizes of $10 and below have upgraded.

The company derived its data from hundreds of thousands of transactions processed through its payment gateway across all 50 states between October 2015 and June 2016. A full copy of the report can be found at www.cardflight.com/resources-emv-migration-tracker-july-2016 .

EMV integral to payments

The recent renaming of the EMV Migration Forum to the U.S. Payments Forum may be another indication that U.S. EMV adoption has progressed beyond an early implementation phase. The Princeton, N.J.-based forum led the industry-wide chip migration, providing expanded support to payments stakeholders while broadening its focus to other emerging payment technologies.

"For any emerging payments technology to take hold in the United States, there needs to be a forum for all payments stakeholders to build relationships, understand each other's unique requirements, build best implementation practices and work out issues together," said Randy Vanderhoof, Director of the U.S. Payments Forum. "We've seen the tremendous amount of progress that can be made using this model of forum with the U.S. EMV chip migration, and so we are now expanding our charter and becoming the U.S. Payments Forum, so the payments industry can continue to work closely together to effectively address the implementation of additional technologies such as mobile payments, card-not-present security solutions and tokenization."

Vanderhoof called the migration to chip payments "the biggest and most complex implementation by the U.S. payments ecosystem," and he expects it to remain a top priority for the forum. In addition to continued support of chip migration and updates to payment specifications and standards, forum members will provide guidance on industry best practices, technical issues and emerging payment schemes. They will also work with merchants, acquirers and service providers to facilitate consumer adoption and improve the overall consumer shopping journey.

Diversified members, projects

Member organizations of the U.S. Payments Forum include global and domestic payment networks, financial card issuers, payment processors, merchants, acquirers, vendors and industry associations. Its new constituent groups representing emerging payment segments include mobile payment, ecommerce and cloud technology service providers.

The forum has produced an array of educational resources since it was established in 2012. In addition to its library of resources, white papers, webinars and educational video recordings, its contributions include:

• Outlining technical requirements for implementing Durbin-compliant EMV debit card solutions in the U.S. market

• Establishing the GoChipCard.com website and educational resources for consumers, merchants and issuers

• Publishing a minimum requirement document designed to demystify EMV implementation and transaction processing for merchants and service providers

• Hosting meetings and working committees to facilitate discussion of EMV implementation across multiple stakeholders

Among many new projects planned, the forum will explore tokenization, card-not-present transactions, point-to-point encryption and mobile and contactless payments. Its diversified membership and ambitious agenda provide a voice to all payments industry stakeholders who have a stake in the industry's future, the organization stated.

Editor's Note:

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