March 2017
 
Dear U.S. Payments Forum member,

Welcome to all our members gathering in Orlando, FL, for our first all-members meeting of 2017, and to those who are not present in person, but who continue to closely monitor the U.S. Payments Forum work throughout the year.

We are now more than five years into this transformational journey of payments stakeholders seeking to find the most effective and efficient path forward for EMV and related solutions to ensure convenient, fast, and secure commerce. In recent months, we have “chipped away” at shortcomings for both issuance and acceptance on the road to full EMV implementation. The conversion to chip cards by credit card issuers is nearing the 80% threshold – which is considered full adoption – and chip debit cards are surpassing the 50% threshold. For the first time, merchants with chip-enabled terminals have exceeded the number of merchant locations that do not have chip-enabled terminals. Consumer behavior has changed enough that merchants who still require shoppers to swipe now have signs indicating “sorry, no chip yet – please swipe.”

Another important stage in the evolution of the U.S. payments market is rapidly approaching. Will there be a contactless future for EMV? In less than 12 months, the first wave of EMV chip cards will expire and issuers will be faced with a question about what the second generation of EMV in the U.S. will look like. Other countries like Canada, the UK, France, and Australia have already decided to fully embrace contactless payments. The U.S. had been the world leader on contactless cards and mobile NFC, and still has the largest volume of mobile wallet users in the world. Are we going to fall behind global payments trends for a second time and not address the need for faster check-out for millions of merchants? After all, more than one third of merchants have contactless capable terminals and nearly 80% of these are already enabled for contactless cards and NFC-enabled mobile devices. The barriers of card cost and terminal infrastructure are melting away; this is not the time to stop innovating and settle for “good enough.”

Now is the time for a full-throttled push by the U.S. Payments Forum to debate the merits of dual interface cards, mobile payments acceptance, and faster, more convenient check-out for merchants. We have all the right people in the Forum – the networks, the banks, the merchants, the processors, the mobile wallet providers. Let’s start the debate and ask the hard questions this week in Orlando, and show the world that the U.S. is not going to lag behind in contactless and mobile payments adoption.

Randy Vanderhoof
Director, U.S. Payments Forum
 
New Transit Contactless Open Payments Working Committee

The U.S. Payments Forum has a new Transit Contactless Open Payments Working Committee. The goal of the Working Committee is for interested stakeholders to work collaboratively to identify possible solutions that address the challenges associated with the implementation of contactless acceptance devices at customer points of entry (POE) within the unique retail environment of the U.S. public transit market. If you would like to join the new Working Committee, 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 U.S. Payments Forum, EMV Connection and GoChipCard.com web sites.

  • The U.S. Payments Forum CNP Fraud Working Committee published a new white paper, CNP Fraud around the World. The new white paper reviews experiences and lessons learned from other countries that have a similar landscape to the U.S. to provide a foundation for the U.S. payments industry to build out layered, effective and systematic mitigation strategies to reduce CNP fraud
  • The Forum published an update to the Optimizing Transaction Time at the POS white paper to add an appendix answering questions about “Faster EMV” (i.e., Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast)
 
Working Committee Projects
ATM Working Committee
  • The ATM Working Committee recently completed their 3rd panel discussion as part of an ongoing series to educate the ATM industry on implementing EMV. The panel discussion took place at the ATMIA U.S. Annual Conference in Orlando on February 14, 2017 and was very well received, with over 75 attendees.
Card-Not-Present Fraud Working Committee
  • The Card-Not-Present Fraud Working Committee completed the “CNP Fraud around the World” white paper which is scheduled to be published at the end of March.
Communications and Education Working Committee
  • In February, the Working Committee welcomed Cindy Knowles with FIS Global, as a new Working Committee co-chair.
Mobile and Contactless Payments Working Committee
  • The Mobile & Contactless Payments Working elected a new Working Committee co-chair—Deborah Baxley with PayGility Advisors.
Petro Working Committee
  • The Petro Working Committee scheduled a half-day meeting on fleet card requirements and specifications during the Forum’s March member meeting in Orlando. The meeting will take place during the afternoon breakout sessions on March 27.
For more information on Working Committee projects that are in process, please contact Mike Strock, mstrock@uspaymentsforum.org
 
Welcome New Members
  • COMPRION GmbH
  • On-Line Strategies Services
  • Poynt
  • Toppan Printing Company
 
U.S. Payments Forum in the News
 
 
Save the Dates for 2017 In Person Meetings
The next three U.S. Payments Forum meetings in 2017 have 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