December 2016
 
Dear Mike,

In anticipation of our December two-day All Members Meeting at the famous Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, I extend an early “warm” welcome to our members and special guest speakers who have gathered for this event. To our Forum members unable to join us in person, I extend a remote welcome to you as well. It is hard to believe that 2016 is rapidly coming to a close and the holiday season is upon us already.

So many new and interesting developments are happening all around the payments market as well as within our own organization. In August, we officially transitioned the EMV Migration Forum to the U.S. Payments Forum. The timing of this change corresponded with the progress that occurred in support of the original mission of the EMV Migration Forum in supporting the timely and efficient transition to chip. Now, the majority of cardholders are carrying at least one chip card, and more local and national retailers are EMV-enabled, resulting in a decline in counterfeit fraud at chip-enabled merchants and an increase in chip-on-chip transactions at POS and ATM locations across America.

These developments, however, have brought into focus the urgent needs to complete the chip transition for merchants and issuers that have not yet achieved EMV enablement. This group includes petro retailers and independent ATM operators, who are being targeted by fraudsters with a higher concentration of fraud. The Forum must continue to support these remaining stakeholders in the payments ecosystem with the same cooperative spirit and creative problem solving that Forum members contributed to the early adopters of EMV.

Other fraud threats need to be addressed as well. We just completed another Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shopping surge, with online sales increasing by 18% over last year and the knowledge that card-not-present fraud is increasing equally fast. The work that will be required to usher in new fraud mitigation solutions like 3D Secure 2.0 to add improved user authentication and risk scoring tools to online channels will take an equally strong commitment among the Forum members.

This week and for the year ahead, let’s embrace a renewed energy within the U.S. Payments Forum to support our payments stakeholders by finishing the job for EMV for our petro retailers, ATM operators and remaining non-EMV merchants. Along the way, join us in kick-starting the adoption of new technologies to address other fraud-prone payments channels like online commerce and mobile.

My best wishes for a joyful holiday season and Happy New Year.

Randy Vanderhoof
Director, U.S. Payments Forum
 
Forum Steering Committee Elections
The Forum has ten Steering Committee seats open for election, with voting open until December 19th. The primary contact for each member organization received an email with the ballot link to vote for the open seats. If you would like more information on the election, please contact Cathy Medich, cmedich@uspaymentsforum.org.
 
New Mobile and Contactless Payments Working Committee
The U.S. Payments Forum has a new Mobile and Contactless Payments Working Committee. The goal of the Working Committee is for all interested parties to work collaboratively to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with implementation of mobile and contactless payments in the U.S. market, identify possible solutions to challenges, and facilitate the sharing of best practices with all industry stakeholders. Working Committee members are now defining the first project statements of work. If you would like to join the new Working Committee, please contact Mike Strock, mstrock@uspaymentsforum.org.
 
Working Committee Projects
ATM Working Committee
  • The ATM Working Committee partnered with the National ATM Council (NAC) and held a well-attended workshop at the NAC2016 Conference & Expo in Orlando
Card-Not-Present Fraud Working Committee
  • The Card-Not-Present (CNP) Working Committee has nearly finalized their “CNP Around the World” white paper. The paper looks at CNP fraud in various countries around the world that are similar to the United States in overall payment structure and e-commerce maturity that have also migrated to EMV
Communications and Education Working Committee
  • The Communications & Education Working Committee is close to finalizing the “EMV Receipts Best Practices” white paper that aims to clarify recommendations and requirements for data elements found on receipts for chip-on-chip transactions
  • During the last in-person meeting, the Communications & Education Working Committee discussed the idea of attending other working sessions to gain greater insight into hot topics and members’ questions and concerns to identify topics for future projects. Communications & Education Working Committee members decided to record their findings in a Causeway wiki page to capture these items and discuss them on bi-weekly calls. This effort began in Rosemont, IL and will continue in Coral Gables and at future in-person meetings
Petro Working Committee
  • The Petro Working Committee, in collaboration with the Communications & Education Working Committee, developed a workshop to educate the petroleum industry on the work that remains to be done by merchants, hardware and software vendors and acquirers in the petroleum market to implement EMV prior to the October 2017 fraud liability shift dates. The workshop is scheduled to take place on December 7, 2016 in Coral Gables, Florida
  • The Petro Working Committee has also coordinated a meeting with Conexxus to discuss the final deliverables for standardizing tags for fleet cards to improve development timelines for merchants, the consumer experience, and to avoid impeding issuer innovation in the process. This meeting is scheduled to take place on December 7, 2016 in Coral Gables, just prior to the educational workshop
For more information on Working Committee projects that are in process, please contact Mike Strock, mstrock@uspaymentsforum.org
 
New EMV Resources

New educational resources published for Forum members and the payments industry are available from the U.S. Payments Forum on the EMV Connection and GoChipCard.com web sites.

  • The U.S. Payments Forum published a new white paper, "Optimizing Transaction Time at the Point of Sale,” to describe three categories of approaches to help speed transactions and discuss their potential impacts for each stakeholder group in the U.S. payments ecosystem: “Faster EMV” solutions (i.e., Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast), contactless/Near Field Communication (NFC) transactions, and other EMV checkout optimization practices
  • The Forum updated its white paper, EMV Implementation Guidance: Fallback Transactions, to provide more information on critical values in the fallback compliance process
  • The Smart Card Alliance Payments Council hosted two webinars on contactless EMV payments benefits, one focused on merchants and one focused on issuers
 
Welcome New Members
  • Apple
  • Connie Driscoll Associates
  • Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
  • First American Payment Systems
  • Lou Seitchik
  • PayGility Advisors
  • SWIFT
  • WISEKEY
 
U.S. Payments Forum in the News
“US Payments Forum broadens focus on mobile payments,” Mobile Payments Today, November 14, 2016. This article features the U.S. Payments Forum’s new Mobile and Contactless Payments Working Committee, created to explore the opportunities and challenges, identify possible approaches, and develop practical implementation guidance and best practices for the variety of mobile and contactless payments product being implemented in the U.S.

“Your Guide to Mitigating Chargebacks,” SMB Retail Technology News, November 14, 2016. Executive Director Randy Vanderhoof shares best practices for retailers on how to avoid and/or mitigate chargebacks

“EMV's 'full enablement' requires more collaboration,” PaymentsSource, October 24, 2016. Executive Director Vanderhoof shares a progress update on the U.S. EMV migration, a look at trending EMV topics including the liability shifts, and the Forum’s priorities in the coming months as it continues to address the EMV migration and expands to new and emerging payments technologies
 
 
Save the Date - 2017 Meeting Schedule Now Posted
The next two U.S. Payments Forum meetings in 2017have been scheduled; mark your calendars today! Click on the specific event for complete information, including registration. Once you’ve registered, be sure to make your travel accommodations before flights and hotels become booked. We look forward to seeing you. 
 
About This Newsletter
The U.S. Payments Forum Quarterly is a publication for members, friends and supporters of the U.S. Payments Forum. The U.S. Payments Forum continues to support the chip migration while also broadening its focus to other new and emerging payments technologies in the U.S. Those technologies protect the security of, and enhance opportunities for, payment transactions within the U.S., and include tokenization, card-not-present transactions, point-to-point encryption, and mobile and contactless payments. Thank you for your interest, and please email us with any suggestions for future content.
www.emv-connection.com