Chip-based fuel cards soon may replace magnetic stripe versions oil companies issue for use at European gas station stores and fuel pumps.
Clear2Pay NV SA announced Nov. 15 it has developed the technical specifications for an EMV-based fuel card through its work with the International Forecourt Standards Forum, a United Kingdom-based group of international petroleum retailers working to establish common payments-equipment standards in its industry.
Besides providing more security, Clear2Pay and the forum want to establish an easy transformation from mag-stripe to chip-based technology for petroleum retailers using company-branded cards, the Belgium-based payment-services technology provider stated in a press release.
Clear2Pay assisted the forum in defining the standards of the new card with oil companies that are members of the forum and with forum equipment suppliers and technicians. The new standards cover card selection, card personalization and operational requirements that will have little impact on existing forum-based equipment, Clear2Pay stated.
Though Clear2Pay has gained significant EMV expertise from several previous projects, the company does not develop or produce EMV cards, Marie Costers, head of Clear2Pay’s Test Tool Competence Centre, tells PaymentsSource.
“Typically, we provide EMV consultancy, test tools and test services,” Costers says. “We have been accredited by MasterCard Worldwide to provide chip-migration services.”
The forum and its members will issue the branded chip-based cards and determine when they will be available to consumers, Costers says. Those members include British Petroleum PLC, Shell U.K. Ltd., OMV Aktiengesellschaft, Exxon Mobil Corp., Q8 (Kuwait Petroleum Int. Ltd.), Statoil Worldwide and Total U.K. Ltd.
The fuel card issuers also will determine which company will manufacture the chip-based cards, Costers adds.
Delivery drivers, rental and transport companies, tour operators, truck drivers, and employees who travel for their businesses generally receive fuel cards from their companies in Europe, Costers explains. They use the cards mostly to buy fuel and oil, but they also may use them to purchase snacks and drinks at gas stations, she adds.
The forum’s mission is to establish standards that allow fuel retailers to create multivendor systems around the best products available and to provide a flexible, open platform for electronic payments and funds transfers, according to its website.
However, agreements between the petroleum companies would determine whether consumers eventually could use an EMV-based fuel card at any gas station, regardless of brand, in any country, Costers says.
Brian Riley, senior research director and analyst with Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup, suggests that a general fuel card issued through the forum could be a valuable card for any traveler, but specifically for a fleet of truck drivers.
“Think of the benefit for a truck driver going through eight different countries using a fuel card that could work with all of the different POS terminals with different currencies they would likely encounter,” Riley says.
Clear2Pay has a strong play in the European markets, and its work to establish a standard EMV-based protocol makes sense for the oil retail industry, Riley contends.
Because the new fuel card is proprietary, it gives Clear2Pay more control to make it more secure, Riley suggests.
The oil companies will issue the new fuel card in Europe first, but China has expressed an interest in the concept, Costers notes. But none are planned for the United States because chip-based technology is not widespread there, Costers adds.
George Albright, vice chairman of Atlanta-based Speer & Associates Inc., an Atlanta-based consultancy, believes it will take more than a common EMV-based fuel card standard to trigger fast acceptance in the U.S.
“Given the large scale, cost and complexity of implementing EMV in the U.S., the transition will take place over a longer period than what we have seen in other global markets unless the government steps in or some other event, such as massive fraud, occurs,” Albright said in an e-mail.
But the U.S. eventually will fall in line with the rest of the world that is either already EMV-compliant or is moving through the implementation process, Albright adds.
Five years ago, the U.S. seemed to have little appetite for EMV, but incentives to convert to EMV from Visa Inc. and the fact that national retailers are including EMV capability in their point-of-sale upgrades indicate the transition is gaining momentum, Albright suggests. Visa Inc. in August announced incentives for merchants that embrace contactless and EMV payments (
Earlier this year, the South African National Department of Transportation hired Clear2Pay to conduct testing of payment terminals used to accept EMV contactless cards in the country’s transportation system (
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