Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Research provides updates on worldwide EMV migration

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Massachusetts research organization reports that EMV is continuing to expand, especially in Europe, Latin America and Canada, but its growth has slowed due to the global economic crisis as banks are being forced to slow down or postpone their migration plans. In some cases these plans have been put on hold indefinitely and the outlook beyond 2010 is less than clear as the European market gets saturated and growth pools in other regions dry up, reports Mercator Advisory Group.


At the same time some of the inherent limitations of EMV are surfacing. Though EMV has been effective in reducing mail-non-receipt and lost-and-stolen card fraud, it has had minimal effect on other types of fraud, particularly card-not-present and counterfeit/overseas fraud. Actually, Mercator points out, EMV’s effectiveness in reducing certain types of card fraud appears to have driven criminals toward other types of card fraud.

“Demand for EMV products and services will continue to be driven by the SEPA initiative in Western Europe, though emerging markets in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe have good potentials as well,” says Terry Xie, director of Mercator Advisory Group”s International Payments Advisory Service. “China is finally moving as China UnionPay starts to replace its POS terminals, but the U.S. is still on the sidelines though neighbor pressure from Canada and Mexico could start to break the ice.” [end] 

Oracle has released a new version of Oracle Retail Point-of-Service that aims to increase security, operational efficiency and functionality in part by integrating biometrics.

Oracle partnered with DigitalPersonal to add integrated biometrics to the POS package. Users of the software will login using their fingerprint, which will replace the need for PINs or passwords. This feature intends to reduce fraud by eliminating the possibility of unauthorized employees using a manager ID or swipe card to access the POS and approve overrides.

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Visa Europe has announced that NFC-enabled smart phones from Samsung, LG and Research In Motion have been certified for use with Visa payWave, Visa’s mobile application for payments at the point-of-sale.

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Digital security provider Gemalto has launched Dexxis EMV instant issuance card product, designed to streamline and speed up banks’ migration to EMV by bringing card issuance processes in-house.

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Global Industry Analysts Inc. released a report forecasting the outlook on the global smart card market to reach 10.9 billion units by 2015.

GIA credits the growth driven largely by major initiatives in the financial, government and security sectors, with the telecom sector at the way ahead of the pack as the largest end-user. Increasing usage of contactless technology, newer applications and mandatory EMV migration across countries are also major drivers boosting the global market for smart cards.

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Barnes International announced that its updated Visa GPR Test module now complies with the latest version of Visa’s Global Personalization Requirements.

The updated test tool will offer evaluation of a chip product to ensure it meets industry and payment scheme certification standards. This reduces a product’s time to market as the chip is aligned to Visa Specifications throughout the development life cycle and before applying for official Visa approval.

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Diners Club Spain has chosen Gemalto to help it migrate to EMV in 2012. In this effort, Gemalto is providing consulting and personalization services to Diners Club Spain.

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