Boston, Mass., Dec. 21, 2011 -- If Visa's view of the world comes to pass, merchants, acquirers, and issuers will be embarking on the most complex update to their payments infrastructure in 20 years. The EMV card security standard, designed to eliminate counterfeit cards, is now an issue for U.S. organizations. At the same time, interest in smartphone-based mobile payments based on NFC is ramping up. Both technology waves will come to U.S. shores simultaneously, and entities that accept, process, route, or assume the risk for payments must prepare.
Mercator Advisory Group's new report Moving Parts: EMV, NFC and Contactless Deployment in the U.S. examines the larger issues as well as specific instances of EMV and contactless payment acceptance. The report details the state of global EMV deployment, dissects the nuanced deployment options for EMV authorization and authentication, and (given the Durbin Amendment's impact on debit processing fees)examines the likely role of the PIN code in debit card issuance based on the EMV standard.
Highlights of this report include:
The fundamental shifts in payment transaction origination and acceptance the United States will soon see, and the impact they will have on how merchants will make acquisition decisions.
The ramifications of Visa's support for EMV contact and contactless payments in the United States and the choices that now abound for issuers.
The nuances affecting successful contactless payment acceptance, and the reasons PayPass and PayWave cards may behave differently.
The long-term outlook for the personal identification number, or PIN, chip-and-pin, and chip-and-signature.
"The expected EMV rollout in the US will require no little choreography on the part of merchants, acquirers and issuers because it will touch every payment device." states George Peabody, director of Mercator Advisory Group's Emerging Technologies Advisory Service. Given the coincident timing of the EMV announcement and the arrival of NFC, merchants have to carefully plan their POS infrastructure investments over the next five years and more. Timing is everything."
This report is 23 pages long, with four figures and three tables. A valuable glossary of contactless terms is included.
Companies mentioned in this report include: Visa, MasterCard, Michael's, Maestro, U.K. Card Association, VELO, Silicon Valley Bank, and Bank of America.
Members of Mercator Advisory Group's Emerging Technologies Advisory Service have access to this report as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead, presentations, analyst access and other membership benefits.
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Source: Company press release.