Visa Clarifies U.S. EMV Implementation Strategy

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After deciding to push the adoption of EMV in the United States last year, Visa has clarified that this does not refer to the introduction of chip and PIN cards, according to a report by Finextra.

In August of 2011, Visa released a plan for the U.S. adaptation of EMV in an effort to help prep the country for the imminent entrance of NFC-enabled mobile payment devices.

Stephanie Erickson, head of authentication product integration, recently addressed some of the industry’s questions on her blog.

“One thing that’s clear from the questions is that there’s a lot of confusion around the myth that EMV means 'chip-and-PIN.' It doesn’t in many countries, including the U.S.

"As a late adopter of EMV, there's a great upside for the industry in the U.S., because we can avoid much of the cost and complexity involved in deploying older-generation chip cards, while still reaping all the benefits of reduced counterfeit fraud," concluded Erickson.

Currently, there are over 1.3 billion EMV payment cards in global circulation and over 20 million terminals in use worldwide, according to EMVCo.

Click here to read the complete article.

Visa originally announced the EMV project in August 2011.

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