News

FIME develops go-to-market kit to streamline EMV card issuance

The 'EMV Starter Kit' for small to midsize FIs provides out-of-the-box consulting services designed to facilitate chip card issuance.

March 31, 2015

To help financial institutions streamline EMV chip card issuance, payments consultancy FIME has developed an "EMV Starter Kit" for small to midsize banks and credit unions. The out-of-the-box consulting services package includes key components needed to effectively issue EMV chip cards, a FIME press release said.

"The transition to EMV chip cards is not a trivial task, and with the fraud liability shift only seven months away, issuers need to take ownership of their implementation projects," said Xavier Giandominici, director of FIME America. "This starter kit gives issuers all of the necessary tools to make the best decisions for their business and their EMV issuance project with the benefit of complete, end-to-end support from EMV experts."

The kit provides guidance from FIME through a series of predefined steps to EMV implementation for issuers, focusing only on these aspects of the project that require specific attention:

• current environment analysis —includes interviews of product managers, logical security, IT management, corporate branding, POS and ATM suppliers, personalization bureaus and others to determine EMV readiness needs;
• EMV workshop — provides a full day of on-site training on the essentials of EMV chip technology, including why, how and when a financial institution should make the transition to the standard;
• card profile business requirements and specification —determines what the FI needs to support EMV chip cards, then builds a personalized card profile that includes technical specifications;
• follow-up with issuing card providers —offers assistance during meetings with an issuing service and help the FI interpret technical aspects; and
• card validation and certification support —provides EMV product certification to ensure that the FI and its personalization bureau have the necessary support in place for card personalization certification.

The consulting kit can be customized with the addition of FIME test tools and testing and certification services, the release said.