Visa pushes for EMV migration

Visa has revealed plans to accelerate the migration to Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) contact and contact less chip technology in the US, according to PR Newswire.

The adoption of dual-interface chip technology will help prepare the US payment infrastructure for the arrival of near field communication (NFC)-based mobile payments by building the necessary infrastructure to accept and process chip transactions that support either a signature or PIN at the point of sale.

“By encouraging investments in EMV contact and contactless chip technology, we will speed up the adoption of mobile payments as well as improve international interoperability and security,” says Jim McCarthy, global head of product, Visa, notes Self-Service.com.

“As NFC mobile payments and other chip-based emerging technologies are poised to take off in the coming years, we are taking steps today to create a commercial framework that will support growth opportunities and create value for all participants in the payment chain,” he adds.

Visa wants to boost sales of new terminals and accelerate the move to transactions made via cellphones with NFC, an emerging standard in mobile technology, writes Bloomberg.

When tapped on the new readers, enabled mobile phones can function like credit and debit cards. Research firm Crone Consulting LLC estimates that only about 200 000 of six million store terminals now accept such contactless payments.

“It will speed up adoption of mobile payments by a year,” says Rick Oglesby, a senior analyst at Aite Group LLC in Mesa, Arizona.

The total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and NFC transactions will reach $670 billion globally by 2015, up from $240 billion this year, according to UK-based consulting firm Juniper Research.