SOURCE: The Smart Card Alliance
August 22, 2011 11:04 ET
PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ--(Marketwire - Aug 22, 2011) - The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) chapter released today a white paper providing roadmap options for Latin American and Caribbean countries migrating to EMV. The white paper is an impartial tool for all payments stakeholders, including issuers, acquirers, merchants, processors, and suppliers of hardware, software, and support services, to educate themselves on the actions they need to consider to issue, accept and process EMV transactions.
The white paper, "Card Payments Roadmap in Latin America: How Does EMV Impact the Payments Infrastructure?" is available for free download here:http://latinamerica.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-card-payments-roadmap-in-latin-america-how-does-emv-impact-the-payments-infrastructure. Topics include:
- The impact of the global and regional deployments of EMV on possible roadmap options for Latin America and the Caribbean.
- A primer on EMV security specifications for card authentication methods, cardholder verification methods and transaction authorization approaches and implementation options for each.
- The relationship between EMV, contactless payments and Near Field Communication (NFC).
- An overview of changes required in the issuing, acquiring/processing, merchant and ATM payments infrastructure to support the different EMV roadmap options.
"While fraud prevention and liability shift mandates provide the incentives for moving to EMV, there has been a lack of impartial resources and information about the steps required and the options for the migration," said Edgar Betts, associate director of the Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) Chapter. "This white paper fills that need by providing stakeholders across the payments value chain with objective information about the critical aspects of deploying an EMV solution in their business environments."
The creation of the white paper is part of SCALA's overall efforts to provide educational material on the considerations for migrating to EMV. Over the past decade, the benefits of migration have increased, while the costs and implementation difficulties have decreased. Many of the terminal providers and some acquirers/processors have already put in place the EMV features and infrastructure to support customers in over 18 countries in Latin America and in the Caribbean.
While EMV implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean has been driven by many factors, one of the biggest incentives is the payment brands' liability shift mandates. Under the mandates, the party that has upgraded cards or terminals to EMV technology is protected if fraud occurs.
Participants involved in the development and review of the paper included: Gemalto, GET Group, MasterCard Worldwide, Morpho, and Visa Inc.
Kim Hangoc, vice president of emerging payments - chip solutions for MasterCard Latin America and the Caribbean, said, "The EMV chip migration is one of MasterCard's priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Throughout the years we have been working in deploying EMV solutions in Latin America as we understand the benefits this technology brings to all the players in the value chain. EMV not only helps reduce card fraud, but is also an innovation gateway for the markets. We are very pleased to have contributed to the creation of this white paper, a tool that will definitely help the different stakeholders better prepare for their EMV migration."
Fernando Mendez, head of emerging products for Visa Inc., Latin America and the Caribbean, said, "The migration to EMV cards is a priority for Visa in Latin America, not only for the increased security they provide, but also for the opportunities of enhancing the consumer experience through multi-applications. Visa sees this industry effort driven by SCALA as a crucial step for further advancement of this technology in the region and it is proud to be part of it."
SCALA Financial Payment Council member organizations include: G&D Burti, Oberthur Technologies, Assenda, Banred S.A., Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul - Banrisul, First Data CAC, Redeban Multicolor S.A., and Telered S.A. For more information on SCALA, visithttp://latinamerica.smartcardalliance.org/.
About the Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA)The primary mission of the Smart Card Alliance Latin American chapter is in line with the overall goals of the Alliance: to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart cards technology in Latin America and the Caribbean. SCALA works through specific projects such as trilingual education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums to keep Latin American chapter organization members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought.
About the Smart Card AllianceThe Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.
Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean. For more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.
