Important initiative to drive adoption of EMV chip technology in the U.S.

Payments Security Task Force, PCI Security Standards Council and the EMV Migration Forum Launch Educational and Pre-Qualification Process for Resellers and Software Vendors. The result will be a streamlined, go-to-market process for the thousands of solutions that will be introduced over the next two to three years, as the U.S. migrates to chip.

Today the PCI Security Standards Council joined with the Payments Security Taskforce and EMV Migration Forum to launch the U.S. EMV VAR Qualification Program, a chip education curriculum and accreditation initiative that will help merchants and their partners securely implement chip card solutions.

The U.S. EMV VAR Qualification Program aims to streamline and simplify the testing and certification process for Value Added Resellers (VARs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to help them help securely implement chip card solutions for their merchant customers in advance of the 2015 liability milestone.

According to Visa Inc press release, through this industrywide effort, VARs and ISVs will better understand how to integrate chip cards into small and mid-sized merchants’ checkout solutions in advance of the October 2015 liability shifts scheduled by major U.S. payment networks.

“One of the greatest challenges in the move to chip is helping the millions of small and mid-sized merchants understand and adopt the technology,” saidStephanie Ericksen, vice president of global risk products at Visa. “A streamlined process will help their payment technology suppliers better prepare and implement chip card acceptance, as the push to chip gains greater traction.”

“The migration to chip in the U.S. is different from what we have seen occur in other countries and requires greater cooperation and scale,” said Carolyn Balfany, senior vice president, MasterCard. “The industry, through a coordinated effort like this, is best positioned to help merchants and their partners accelerate the implementation of chip to deliver their customers a safer shopping experience.”

“Successful EMV implementation in the U.S. requires cross-industry efforts to prepare for the migration and collaboration across key payments players. Similar cross-industry efforts will streamline EMV deployment and maximize resource effectiveness, driving a more secure consumer payments experience,” said Nicole Carroll, vice president of global products and solutions, Discover.

Merchants have the ability to prepare their checkout systems today to continue to deliver their customers an even more secure shopping experience.

The optional program consists of three central elements:
. An educational curriculum from the EMV Migration Forum that provides a clear understanding of chip technology for payment cards in the U.S. market
. A listing on the PCI Security Standards Council website of all service providers independently accredited by the major payment networks to provide chip recommendations and implementation
. A pre-qualification process run by the accredited service providers to help VARs and ISVs begin the implementation process before they work with acquirers for final certification

“We heard from the acquirer community that there was a limitation on the time and resources available to help the VAR community best prepare for the broad adoption of chip,” said PCI SSC Chairperson Bruce Rutherford. “This coordinated effort across all industry players will help eliminate the bottleneck and speed the certification of smaller merchants’ chip card acceptance efforts.”

Added PCI SSC General Manager Stephen W. Orfei, “We’re pleased to partner with the Payment Security Taskforce and the EMV Migration Forum in this important initiative to drive adoption of EMV chip technology in the U.S., a critical security layer that when combined with PCI Standards as a layered approach will help organizations better protect their customers’ valuable payment card data.”

How It Works
The coordinated effort will begin with the launch of educational resources for the VAR and ISV communities to establish an understanding of chip technology, including targeted webinars and selfservice web portals on how to build a business case for chip, an overview of a chip card transaction and how to navigate the testing and certification process.

Each VAR will then have the ability to pre-qualify its payment solution for each of the major payment networks with an accredited service provider based on its knowledge of chip technology, and work with its acquirer to receive a final certification of the solutions a merchant would need to use to process a chip card transaction.

The result will be a streamlined, go-to-market process for the thousands of solutions that will be introduced over the next two to three years, as the U.S. migrates to chip.