Cayan’s EMV Speed Test

Six months past the EMV liability shift and transactions aren’t moving at the pace that a lot of merchants would prefer.

Payment technology company Cayan is attempting to quicken the pace in that regard, announcing late last week that retailers that utilize its Genius platform (and ChipIQ technology therein) report to be completing processing of EMV transactions at an average of 3.66 seconds — a notably shorter time than the 15-plus seconds that merchants cite otherwise, according to reports that Cayan shared.

“There is nothing inherently slow about processing a transaction with an EMV chip card. Looking at the last million transactions we processed on our Genius platform, we consistently see EMV transactions at speeds that rival traditional swipe transactions,” stated Henry Helgeson, CEO and cofounder of Cayan, in a company press release. “We applaud the recent announcements by major card brands to help speed up EMV transactions, but they don’t address the root cause of the issue. Unfortunately, many retailers are experiencing slow processing times because they are the recipients of poor EMV implementation, and it may be difficult for them to solve that prior to the Q4 holiday season. Fortunately, they don’t have to wait; with our Genius platform and ChipIQ technology, retailers can accept EMV transactions in under four seconds today.”

“When we began our EMV development, it was important to tap into the inherent understanding and experience of our U.K. engineering team,” Marc Castrechini, VP of product management at Cayan, also commented in the release. “Not only did they have knowledge of EMV from a development standpoint, but they also understood the nuances of the checkout experience as everyday consumers and users of chip cards. Our ChipIQ technology was built into the Genius platform from the beginning. It works with every card brand and requires no software upgrades or additional testing for the merchant. We have thousands of merchants already using our platform and seeing these results.”