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EMV Migration Forum issues revised Standardization of Terminology

Wednesday, April 02, 2014 — 15:04:38 (EDT)

Princeton Junction, N.J., April 1, 2014 –The U.S. payments system is changing as we join 80+ other countries and move to chip card payments. As new payment cards, new acceptance terminals and a new way to pay in-store are being introduced to the market, our basic terminology will evolve. To ensure consistency and accuracy in the way card issuers, retailers, consumers and the media talk and write about chip technology, the EMV Migration Forum has released a new version of its Standardization of Terminology document.

Download the Standardization of Terminology at www.emv-connection.com/standardization-of-terminology/ .

“Moving to chip card payments requires internal and external education throughout the entire payments industry,” said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum. “This document is a great resource to help the industry to use consistent language when speaking and writing about chip technology in order to facilitate broad understanding, reduce confusion and allow for a smooth migration.”

The document, developed by the EMV Migration Forum Communication and Education Working Committee, is available for the payments industry to use and distribute as they develop internal and external communications and educational deliverables relating to the migration to chip payments. It contains commonly used terms relating to chip card payment technology, their definitions and less-preferred synonyms that can be misinterpreted as having alternate meanings.

Recommended terms included in the document include:

Card reader. The recommended term for the area of the chip-enabled terminal where consumers insert their card to initiate a contact chip card transaction, or tap their card to initiate a contactless chip card transaction. Preferred over synonyms dip reader, manual reader and motorized reader.

Chip card. The recommended term for referring to new payment cards containing embedded secure integrated circuits. Preferred over synonyms EMV card, smart card and integrated circuit card.

Chip-enabled terminal. The recommended term for point-of-sale terminals that have, or are connected to, a chip card reader, an EMV application and are able to process chip card transactions. Preferred over synonym EMV terminal.

Dual interface chip card. The recommended term for a chip card that has both contact and contactless interfaces, enabling payment transactions with either interface. Preferred over synonyms dual interface card, dual chip card and contactless card.

While all U.S. market stakeholder groups were considered in the development of this list of terms, technical terms have been limited to those that would be used in educational and marketing communications.

Contributors to the Standardization of Terminology included: American Express; Bank of America; Barclaycard; Chase Card Services; Cryptomathic; First Data; FIS; Heartland Payment Systems; MasterCard; MTA NYC Transit; SHAZAM; Target; Vantiv; Visa; Walmart.

For more information on EMV chip cards and U.S. migration, visit www.emv-connection.com .

About U.S. EMV Migration Commonly used globally in place of magnetic stripe, EMV chip technology helps to reduce card fraud in a face-to-face card-present environment; provides global interoperability; and enables safer transactions across contact and contactless channels. EMV implementation was initiated in the U.S. market in in 2011 and 2012 when American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa announced their roadmaps for supporting an EMV-based payments infrastructure. Acquirer processor readiness mandates to support EMV were established for 2013, with liability shifts for managing fraud risk in a face-to-face environment set for 2015.

About the EMV Migration Forum The EMV Migration Forum is a cross-industry body focused on supporting the EMV implementation steps required for global and regional payment networks, issuers, processors, merchants, and consumers to help ensure a successful introduction of more secure EMV chip technology in the United States. The focus of the Forum is to address topics that require some level of industry cooperation and/or coordination to migrate successfully to EMV technology in the United States. For more information on the EMV Migration Forum, please visit www.emv-connection.com/emv-migration-forum/ .

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Source: Company press release.