News

Smart Card Alliance publication touches on benefits of contactless EMV

July 19, 2016

The Smart Card Alliance Payments Council has released a new white paper touting the advantages of contactless EMV payments in the U.S. over the more commonly used contact EMV method.

According to a press release, "Contactless EMV Payments: Benefits for Consumers, Merchants and Issuers" addresses some of the larger questions around the adoption of contactless payments, including how contactless fits into today's payment industry; what has changed from earlier adoption attempts; and why now is the ideal time to go contactless.

"[L]ooking at other countries that have already successfully moved to contactless EMV payments, the benefits of the technology for U.S. payments stakeholders are clear, and now is the time for the U.S. to take advantage of the opportunities this technology provides," Smart Card Alliance Executive Director Randy Vanderhoof said in the release. "The white paper provides the industry with a clear understanding of these benefits, and also provides implementation guidance for stakeholders interested in taking steps towards contactless adoption."

The white paper discusses how the U.S. migration to EMV chip technology can propel the adoption of contactless card and mobile payments. It also summarizes implementation considerations for issuers and merchants.

The release listed benefits of contactless payments, that include:

• for issuers — improved customer experience; enhanced security; easy dual-interface card deployment; global interoperability; and complement to mobile payment app issuance; and
• for merchants — improved customer experience and transaction speeds; enhanced security; new cardholder verification methods; support for both cards and NFC-enabled mobile devices; use of current POS infrastructure; reduced cash handling; and higher transaction amounts.

The free paper is available for download from the Smart Card Alliance website.

Participants in the development of the white paper include: Advanced Card Systems; American Express; Bell ID; Capgemini; CH2M; Chase Commerce Solutions; CPI Card Group; Discover Financial Services; First Data Corp.; Fiserv; Gemalto; Giesecke & Devrient; Ingenico Group; Metropolitan Transportation Authority; NXP Semiconductors; Oberthur Technologies; Quadagno & Associates; TSYS; Verifone; Visa Inc.; Wells Fargo; and Xerox.