PIN-debit networks, wary of how U.S. adoption of the EMV chip-card standard may affect their operations, are taking action.
The Secure Remote Payment Council on April 27 announced the formation of a working group whose mission is to ensure that existing PIN-debit networks integrate smoothly with EMV as it rolls out in the U.S. over the next several years.
Electronic funds transfer networks participating in the working group include First Data Corp.'s Star, Discover Financial Services' Pulse, Fidelity National Information Service’s NYCE, Accel/Exchange, Shazam, Credit Union 24, Co-Op Financial Services and Vantiv Inc.'s Jeanie, according to a press release.
The group notes in its announcement that U.S. chip-card development has "increased significantly" in the nine months since Visa Inc.'s announcement last year of initiatives designed to encourage a shift from magnetic stripe card technology to the more-secure EMV standard (
And as things unfold, industry participants have begun to worry about what approach PIN-debit networks will need to take in order to integrate with new chip-card standards.
"Debit networks are concerned that the current international standards for chip technology do not consider the competitive, newly regulated, real-time payment infrastructure within the U.S.," the group stated in its announcement.
For example, new debit card network routing rules, introduced this year as a result of the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act, require issuers to support at least two unaffiliated brands on debit cards, "a requirement that will need to be accommodated within chip technology going forward," the group said.
To help achieve that, the group plans to collaborate to define an approach to EMV that will incorporate various requirements and ensure interoperability for point of sale and ATM transactions via PIN-debit networks.
"There is some concern that as EMV unfolds in the U.S. it might make it more difficult for EFT networks to do business as a chip-and-PIN environment takes hold, and we want to avoid that by putting an application in place that will incorporate EFT networks' requirements," Paul Tomasofsky, president of the Secure Remote Payment Council, tells PaymentsSource.
The group is setting up a series of meetings now to collaborate on how it will "nail down" its own approach to EMV and then invite other industry players in to help establish an integration path for PIN-debit networks and EMV, Tomasofsky says. "Time is of the essence, because many stakeholders are looking to see what EFT networks are going to do about chip-and-PIN, and now we are getting the process under way."
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