Consumers today expect their payment device to work anywhere in the world, whether they are paying face-to-face or online. This process must be familiar, convenient, secure and reliable for consumers and for businesses. The EMV® Specifications play their part in making this possible, but what are they, and where do they fit into the wider payments ecosystem?
What are EMV Specifications?
EMV Specifications provide technical requirements that enable any party to develop payment products safe in the knowledge that they will work anywhere in the world.
EMV Specifications complement industry standards that provide high level rules for compatibility by defining specifically what is needed for a seamless and secure technical interaction between the point-of-sale and payment products used by the consumer.
Why are specifications needed?
EMV Specifications support the delivery of reliable and convenient payments for merchants and consumers worldwide. Inconsistent processes and fragmentation across channels and regions create points of weakness, from both a security and consumer convenience perspective, which undermine the ability to deliver a safe and seamless payment experience.
EMV Specifications address these challenges by providing a common and secure foundation for the development and deployment of card-based payment products that will work on a global scale, while also supporting regional requirements, so that consumers can expect a safe and successful purchase whether shopping in-store or online.
Who uses EMV Specifications?
Organisations – including banks, merchants, technology vendors, and national and regional payment networks – use EMV Specifications to develop and deploy products that will work together seamlessly and securely for in-store, online and remote card-based payments. They are designed to be flexible and can be adapted regionally to meet national payment requirements and accommodate local regulations. Domestic networks across the world have widely implemented EMV Specifications.
Consumers and businesses benefit from the EMV Specifications every single day, by being able to follow a familiar payment process to make secure, reliable card-based payments wherever they are in the world. There are currently nearly 11 billion EMV Chip payment cards in use today and over 8,000 EMVCo-certified products globally. In Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Latin America such usage is nearly at maturity and continues to rise globally.
How are EMV Specifications developed?
EMVCo engages and collaborates with the global payments industry to develop and shape the future of EMV Specifications. It dedicates significant resources to developing EMV Specifications and makes them available to all industry participants.
Through the EMVCo Associates and Subscriber Programmes, merchants, issuers, acquirers, payment networks, financial institutions, manufacturers, technology providers and testing laboratories contribute their knowledge and expertise to the development of EMV Specifications.
EMV Specifications are publicly available for use by any organisation, and all payments industry stakeholders are encouraged to contribute to the development of EMV Specifications and provide input to EMVCo. To enable the widest participation, new EMV Specifications and major updates are released for public review to enable all parties to provide comments before final publication, which is approved by the EMVCo Board of Advisors.
by Oliver Manahan
