News

US Payments Forum committee to address contactless, mobile payments issues

November 14, 2016

The U.S. Payments Forum has formed a mobile and contactless payments working committee to explore opportunities, challenges, possible approaches and practical implementation guidance for mobile and contactless payments in the U.S., according to a press release.

In addition to contactless and mobile payments and the continuing EMV migration, topics to be taken up by the forum include tokenization, card-not-present security solutions and encryption.

"[O]ur goal as an organization is to provide concrete, usable guidance to make new and emerging payment technologies a reality in the U.S.," said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the U.S. Payments Forum, in the release.

Vanderhoof said that because the forum is the only organization of its kind in the U.S., the mobile and contactless working committee will be "uniquely positioned to develop implementation guidance and help the payments industry to be better equipped to implement contactless payment technologies."

The committee will gather input from across the payments industry and provide education and guidance through communications such as industry briefings; white papers; implementation guidance; webinars; seminars; workshops; infographics; and more.

Areas of focus will include:

• implementation challenges for various use cases and segments, (e.g., in-store, quick service restaurant and transit);
• implementation of multiple mobile payment technologies (e.g., NFC, Bluetooth, QR code) and wallet approaches;
• implementation of payment security technologies such as tokenization, encryption and new methods of accountholder verification;
• the implications of mobile payments for the customer experience.

The committee will hold its first in-person working session at the U.S. Payments Forum member meeting on December 8–9 in Coral Gables, Florida. Mobile operators and wallet providers are invited to take advantage of a limited time offer to join the forum and learn how other payments industry stakeholders have benefited from membership.