Assessing the impact of EMV migration: A pragmatic delivery approach

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact of the global migration of card-based payments to move away from magnetic-stripe-based transactions to EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) or chip-based transactions. It is imperative that all aspects of the card payments model are considered when assessing the impacts of changes to technology, business processes and the end customer experience. The key driver for chip-based card payments over 12 years of standardisation and deployments globally has centred on fraud. Market migrations range from nationally coordinated efforts through to individual organisational programmes. Today, markets grapple with business cases, market or industry mandates, regulatory intervention and identifying marketing opportunities. The growing strength of the retail sector to challenge the banking industry as the traditional custodians of the international payment schemes (Visa and MasterCard in particular) has required the engagement model between stakeholders to become more inclusive. Strong engagement between the retail and financial services sectors is a critical aspect of a successful migration to EMV. The payments schemes (including American Express and JCB) play an increasing role in supporting all stakeholders in the payments model. This paper provides insight into the impacts of an EMV migration and best practices to manage market migration effectively.