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GB nº 49: New Structure for EMV® Contact and Contactless Specifications

v1.0 General Bulletin
ContactContactless Acceptance Device

EMV<sup>®</sup> General Bulletin No. 49 First Edition December 2017 New Structure for EMV Contact and Contactless Specifications This General Bulletin outlines the new structure for the EMV contact and contactless chip specifications.

Applicability

This Bulletin applies to:

  • EMV<sup>®</sup> Integrated Circuit Card Specifications for Payment Systems
  • EMV<sup>®</sup> Contactless Specifications for Payment Systems

Related Documents

  • EMV Level 1 Specifications for Payment Systems [publication pending]

Effective Date

  • When the next versions of contact and contactless EMV specifications published.

Description

The EMV contact chip specifications (EMV<sup>®</sup> Integrated Circuit Card Specifications for Payment Systems, Books 1 to 4) comprise both protocol layer (referred to as Level 1) and application layer (referred to as Level 2) definitions. Books 2 to 4 contain only Level 2 topics: Security and Key Management, Application Specification, and Cardholder, Attendant, and Acquirer Interface Requirements. However, Book 1 contains both Level 1 requirements (Electromechanical Characteristics, Logical Interface, and Transmission Protocols) and Level 2 requirements (Files, Commands, and Application Selection). The situation is different for the EMV contactless specifications where Book D is reserved for the Level 1 requirements and the other books for Level 2 requirements. The clear separation of the two levels in different books presents several advantages:

  • Developers can easily identify the two levels
  • Type Approval services can easily identify the two levels (Level 1 Type Approval and Level 2 Type Approval)
  • Maintenance of the books is easier and EMVCo can assign books to different working groups with different skills (the Level 1 Working Group (L1WG) and the Level 2 Working Group (L2WG) maintain the Level 1 and Level 2 specifications respectively). When the first version of the EMV contact chip specifications was published around two decades ago, the bundling of Level 1 and Level 2 into the same set of books was the right approach to take as it was the only specification EMVCo was responsible for. When the EMV contactless specifications were launched (EMV Contactless Specifications for Payment Systems, Books A to D), it was decided that a dedicated volume, Book D, would contain the contactless Level 1 requirements. countries. EMVCo continues to evolve both EMV contact and contactless specifications. The L1WG and L2WG work independently of each other, and the evolution of each of the specifications are not necessarily linked. For example, L1WG may propose changes that would lead to a new version of the EMV contactless specifications, even if L2WG has no Level 2 updates. In order to increase the flexibility of each working group, and mindful that the audience for the Level 1 and Level 2 specifications are usually not the same, EMVCo has decided to decouple the Level 1 and Level 2 specifications, facilitating the release of new versions of the specifications. The Level 1 specifications will now be named EMV Level 1 Specifications for Payment Systems and will initially consist of two volumes – one for contact chip (based on the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications for Payment Systems, Book 1) with the title EMV Contact Interface Specifications and one for contactless (based on the EMV Contactless Specifications for Payment Systems, Book D) with the title EMV Contactless Interface Specifications: Current Structure EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications for Payment Systems v4.3:
  • Book 1:
  • Electromechanical Characteristics, Logical Interface, and Transmission Protocols
  • Files, Commands, and Application Selection
  • Books 2 to 4 EMV Contactless Specifications for Payment Systems v2.6:
  • Books A, B, and C-X
  • Book D New Structure EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications for Payment Systems v4.4:
  • Book 1:
  • Files, Commands, and Application Selection
  • Books 2 to 4 (Unchanged) EMV Contactless Specifications for Payment Systems v2.7:
  • Books A, B, and C-X EMV Level 1 Specifications for Payment Systems:
  • EMV Contact Interface Specifications v1.0
  • EMV Contactless Interface Specifications v3.0 Publication of the specifications: The draft version of the EMV Contactless Interface Specifications v3.0 has already been published, whilst the EMV Contact Interface Specifications will be released when the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications for Payment Systems v4.4 is published. countries.