News

Shift4 obtains EMV certification from Global Payments Canada

June 18, 2012

Independent payment gateway Shift4 Corp. has announced the completion of the EMV certification process to Global Payments Canada.

"We started this process nearly 15 months ago," said Shift4 COO Kathy Oder. "It's been a long road, with a lot of red tape and bureaucracy to navigate but we're happy to do it because of the benefits it will offer our merchant customers and vendor partners."

Shift4's certification to Global Payments Canada currently covers chip-and-PIN transaction processing on the Ingenico iPP320 device; additional devices may be added in the future. The interface is available to all merchant types, supports all major card brands, and has received approval from the respective card associations.

Canadian merchants whose point-of-sale systems were certified with Shift4 after June 2009 are now able to process EMV transactions simply by adding a supported EMV device. No additional effort on their part will be required for them to achieve EMV certification. Those whose systems were certified prior to June 2009 will need to have just a few minor modifications made to their code in order to be EMV-compliant.

U.S. merchants along the Canadian border who process a significant number of transactions using Canadian EMV cards can work with Shift4 to split-process those EMV-based transactions through Global Payments Canada, while keeping the rest of their transaction volume with their current processor. 

"The great thing for merchants is, now that EMV is an integral part of Shift4's solution, we'll handle all the heavy lifting when it comes time to add U.S. EMV in the coming years," said Shift4's CEO Dave Oder. "As soon as there are processors ready to take on EMV in the U.S., Shift4 will be ready to help our merchant customers transition to accepting this new type of card."

For more on this topic, visit the EMV research center.