Smart Card Alliance Turns Attention to EMV Migration

The Smart Card Alliance has formed a group, the EMV Migration Forum, to support the move from magnetic stripe technology to EMV chip technology in the U.S.

Although the EMV Migration Forum will be part of the Smart Card Alliance organization, it will have a separate membership and be open to representatives from financial card issuers, payments processors, merchants, acquirers, payment networks, industry suppliers and other constituent groups, the Smart Card Alliance, a nonprofit association focused on smart card technology, said Tuesday.

The group plans to provide guidance on technical issues and consumer awareness relating to the adoption of EMV and to discuss the coordination of process-related elements of the payments infrastructure necessary to introduce an EMV-enabled payment system.

American Express (AXP), Discover Financial Services (DFS), MasterCard (MA) and Visa (NYSE:V) have all announced plans to move to an EMV-based payments infrastructure in the U.S., with payment processor mandates in place for 2013 and major changes for managing fraud risk set for 2015.

The first forum meeting will be in September. Participants will learn about member benefits and discuss priorities for the group.

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