EMV: Building the foundation for the future of payments

Abstract

EMV is a specification jointly developed by Europay, MasterCard and Visa in the 1990s to ensure global interoperability for payment cards using chip technology. It is a move from analogue to digital, introducing a method of ensuring much greater security for transactions. Besides the reduction of fraud, however, there are other benefits in a migration to EMV: the secure chip technology can be embedded within other devices such as key fobs, tablets and mobile phones, and the infrastructure upgrade for EMV can be used to expand functionality and merchant/consumer offers. There are key considerations in migration planning, as with all major projects. For merchants, there is the question whether to support solely contact EMV; and for issuers, of which portfolios to convert, at what pace and whether to segment geographically. This is an extraordinary time in the payments industry, with many new developments happening now. An EMV migration has many benefits, including opportunities to innovate, reduction in fraud and an improved transaction experience.