Strategic and Technical Insights, Regulatory Updates, and Anniversary Celebrations: Key Takeaways from EMVCo’s Lisbon Meetings

With EMVCo celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024, October’s joint Board of Advisors and Technical Meeting provided a special opportunity for the entire Associate community to come together to reflect on the success and advances of EMV® payments technology. In this post, Oliver Manahan, EMVCo Director of Engagement and Operations, and Arman Aygen, EMVCo Director of Technology, summarise the key discussions and initiatives from the meeting that stand to shape EMVCo’s work in the years to come. 1. Reflecting on 25 years. EMV technology has come a long way in 25 years. At the end of 2023, there were nearly 14 billion EMV Chip cards in circulation and almost 95% of card-present transactions used EMV Chip technology. Various EMV technologies are now built on this foundation, allowing consumers and businesses to make trusted and reliable card-based payments in-store and online – wherever they are in the world. This was illustrated by Jorge Paulo from SIBS, who detailed the role of EMV Specifications in supporting and enabling payments innovation in Portugal – and explored the opportunities and considerations arising from growing adoption of EMV Contactless, EMV 3-D Secure (3DS) and EMV Payment Tokenisation. Speeches from Stephen Downie from Verifone and Junya Tanaka from JCB, two of EMVCo’s longest-standing participants, also provided an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of many individuals and the wider Associate community in shaping the EMV Specifications. 2. EMVCo Approvals and Evaluations continue to advance. EMVCo announced that it has received ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation for its security evaluation processes. This new status as an accredited certification body recognises the value and quality of EMVCo security product evaluations in enabling the deployment of safe and secure payment solutions. The testing process for the new EMV® Contactless Kernel Specification (EMV® Contactless Specifications for Payment Systems: Book C-8 – Kernel 8 Specification) was also launched in Lisbon, with the first laboratory accreditations, tool qualifications and product approvals now listed on the EMVCo website. By evaluating whether products perform in accordance with the specification, approval testing will support the evolution of contactless and mobile payments and simplify global acceptance. This follows the launch of a dedicated testing approval process to promote a more seamless experience when smartphones and other handheld mobile devices are used to accept contactless payments – known as TapToMobile. Looking ahead, EMVCo is developing a roadmap for adapting the acceptance criteria to bring the experience delivered by TapToMobile devices closer to that of traditional payment terminals. EMVCo also provided an update on its Biometric on Card initiative. Dedicated security requirements have now been defined and incorporated into the chip security guidelines and evaluation process. In addition, EMVCo has been refining biometric performance requirements following industry feedback and expects to publish the document this year, with work continuing on the development of a supporting testing process and approval programme. Finally, and to reflect the vital role that EMVCo testing plays within the broader payments ecosystem, the Approvals and Evaluations section on the EMVCo website has been updated to make it easier for industry stakeholders to find key information about processes and products. 3. A look at how an EMV EV Open Payments (EVOP) Specification might work. EMVCo is continuing to explore the development of an EMV EVOP Specification that would enable a card-based capability within the ISO 15118 ‘Plug & Charge’ experience – with EMV Chip technology serving as the foundation for face-to-face payments. This included an exclusive showing of an interactive demo outlining possible transaction flows and user interface considerations. As part of the initiative, EMVCo announced it is investigating a poten