EMV

After postponing enforcement for years, the card brands are implementing an EMV liability shift at fuel stations, which still struggle to make the upgrades necessary for chip-card acceptance.

The shift from cash has boosted digital and called attention to the importance of standards, says EMVCo's Brian Byrne.

EMVCo, the major card brand-supported venture to establish EMV guidelines and specifications, has begun testing a program to determine if consumer mobile devices can securely accept contactless payments — a move that not only hastens the adoption of contactless payments, but renews criticism over which networks control technology and routing decisions.

But with the deadline fast approaching and no further extensions on the horizon, focusing squarely on accelerating EMV compliance is now the optimal decision for gas station owners, says Paysafe's Lori Griboski.

The trend toward payments that limit contact will continue beyond COVID-19, says EMVco.'s Brian Byrne.

The complexity of the migration is an opportunity to examine other elements of the payment experience, says TNS' Brian DuCharme.

EMVCo has developed guidelines that allow the travel industry to provide more data to issuers authorizing ticketing transactions as a way to reduce fraud in air travel, hotel and car rental purchases.

The coronavirus pandemic has generated more interest in pay-at-the-pump apps, a growing segment of the payments industry that may not have grown fast enough to be ready for the sudden surge of interest in contactless payments.

To ensure safe, secure transactions that are protected against fraud, retailers moving to EMV have been encouraged by their POS partners to replace or upgrade the network infrastructure, says TNS' Brian DuCharme.

The role of EMVCo — which is often seen as an extension of the card brands that deals only with chip-based EMV plastic cards— has come into sharper focus.

Manual work is time-intensive and resource-draining, especially when it involves high volumes of data across disparate systems. When it comes to payments, this can get really complicated with all the moving pieces, says Global Payments Integrated's Ashley Jones.

In line with the other major card brands, Mastercard is extending its EMV liability shift at gas pumps to April 2021. It is also launching a data-driven fraud protection tool for fuel merchants who have not completed their upgrade to chip-card EMV pumps.

U.S. card issuers aren’t getting the full benefit of the contactless phenomenon because of their slower contactless card rollout strategies.

Visa is delaying previously announced interchange and fee changes until April 2021, except for changes in the supermarket category, which will remain on the same schedule.

American Express will delay the EMV fraud liability shift due to complications from the coronavirus, following reports that Visa has made a similar concession.

Visa’s the first card company to push back the October deadline for U.S. gas station EMV compliance, but that’s just one of a mounting set of challenges petroleum merchants are facing because of the coronavirus.

While an EMV transit system is a form of account-based ticketing (ABT), this assimilation is problematic, says OSPT's Jean-Philippe Wolyniec.

There is no denying that the upgrade to EMV will reduce certain types of fraud by noticeable amounts, but there should be no illusion that this is a “silver bullet” to a growing fraud trend, says The ai Corporation's James Crawshaw.

The coronavirus pandemic has added a troubling twist to the already difficult process of converting fuel pumps to accept EMV chip cards and communicate with the stations' point-of-sale terminals.

With the EMV liability shift date for automated fuel dispensers (AFD) looming, subject to any last-minute changes, we are seeing major changes at fuel sites across the USA. With close to 150,000 active fuel sites in the U.S. alone, there are a huge number of individual pumps that will need to be upgraded to accept chip and PIN cards.