Already widely adopted throughout Europe, EMV (Europay Mastercard Visa) credit card processing technology is now being embraced by consumers and financial institutions in the United States. The 2015 deadline for merchants to migrate to and adopt EMV payment acceptance meant that both consumers and businesses have had to acclimate to the new, more secure credit card system over the past several years. However, some businesses still haven’t made the switch.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMV PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
The reason why EMV payment solutions technology is so important is that it offers a dramatic upgrade in payment data security and protects both merchants and consumers. Chip-enabled EMV payment solutions not only assist in fraud reduction but they can also be used to prevent individuals from maliciously swiping older cards which contain only a magnetic stripe, and no EMV chip for processing, in order store account information for nefarious purposes.
Financial services provider MasterCard found that incidents of fraud has decreased by 60% (in terms of dollars) amongst the top 5 EMV-compliant merchants in the United States since their adoption of the technology.
THE LEVELS OF EMV COMPLIANCE
To help shed some light onto how EMV compliance works, it is important to know that there are actually three different levels of EMV compliance. The definition of these levels as well as the regulatory body that defines EMV compliance is EMVCo. EMVCo is responsible for managing, maintaining and enhancing EMV specifications globally.
Level 1 of EMV credit card processing compliance covers physical, electrical and transport level interfaces. This involves the POS terminal which merchants use and ensuring that it complies with the physical requirements of accepting and processing EMV chip-enabled credit card transactions.
Level 2 of EMV credit card processing compliance covers payment application selection and credit financial transaction processing. This involves software specifications that merchants will need to address to ensure that they are EMV compliant. Once software compliance commands are addressed as part of Level 2, the merchant’s terminal and software will be able to communicate securely and safely and in compliance with EMV standards.
There is a third level of EMV compliance certification that deals directly with the developers and ISVs who write EMV security compliant software code. Merchants and consumers only need to worry about the first two levels of EMV compliance.
AN EMV COMPLIANCE HELPING HAND
Because all of the potential confusion and frustration that partners may experience while transitioning their hardware and software to become EMV compliant, it’s critical to find a payments expert to help them with the process. That’s why we are proud to offer a wide array of technical services and software as well as a dedicated EMV compliance customer support team to our partners.
Your EMV payment solution partner should offer APIs and technical support documentation to make the process as painless as possible. Partners who are making the transition will need a hands-on, dedicated implementation team which will guide them through the integration process and will act as an intermediary between your business and the payment processing software development team to ensure that all your payment processing and transition needs are met.
