News

EMV Migration Forum to assume new name, focus

July 21, 2016

The EMV Migration Forum is changing its name to the U.S. Payments Forum to reflect a broadening mission to support the payments ecosystem.

In a press release, the forum said that it will continue to support chip migration in the U.S. while expanding its focus to encompass new and emerging payments technologies.

New areas the forum plans to address include tokenization, card-not-present transactions, point-to-point encryption, and mobile and contactless payments.

"The remarkable progress we've seen in the U.S. chip migration to date is a direct result of the commitment and cooperation from the entire payments industry," said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum. "There are also many other payment technologies that require the same breadth of stakeholder engagement, cooperation and coordination for successful implementation in the U.S."

Vanderhoof said that the transition will offer the forum an opportunity to capitalize on a "strong, existing organization that the networks, issuers, merchants, processors, and industry suppliers already know and trust."

As the U.S. Payments Forum the organization will pursue several goals:

• continue to support chip migration;
• provide best practices and actionable guidance on implementation and adoption of new payments technologies;
• facilitate potential coordination of process-related aspects of the payments infrastructure;
• assist in projects to facilitate consumer adoption and consistent experience; and
• offer feedback to standards bodies on proposed new payments specifications.

The U.S. Payments Forum membership will comprise current EMV Migration Forum members — i.e., payments networks, card issuers, processors, merchants, acquirers, suppliers and industry associations — as well as other new constituents representing mobile payments, e-commerce services, cloud payments, and new technologies.