A Spotlight on Payments Innovation: Highlights from the EMVCo Vienna Technical Meeting

In November 2025, EMVCo Associates gathered in Vienna, Austria to share technical knowledge and expert insights. In this post, Arman Aygen, EMVCo Director of Technology, outlines the key discussions that will shape the development of the EMV® Specifications in 2026 and beyond. With transformative technologies accelerating change across the global payments industry, collaboration is integral to enabling seamless and secure payments experiences for consumers and merchants everywhere. This sentiment was best encapsulated in a guest presentation by Petia Niederländer from the Austrian National Bank (OeNB), who highlighted that a changing monetary landscape and the emergence of new digital payment methods and infrastructure requires “coordinated efforts between all players along the payment chain.” Importantly, such collaboration was on full display at EMVCo Technical Meeting in Vienna, with EMVCo Associates driving the discussion on emerging opportunities and challenges across the payments ecosystem: How EMV Specifications can support agentic payments Following valuable input from the Board of Advisors in Charleston in October, EMVCo announced that it is working on how EMV Specifications can be developed and enhanced to promote seamless and secure card-based agentic payments and increase trust and interoperability across the ecosystem. Attendees heard how the Digital Identity and Payment Task Force is looking into how EMV technologies such as EMV 3-D Secure (3DS), EMV Payment Tokenisation and EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) could support agentic commerce. An Associate presentation by Angel Romero from Fime also explored the emerging agentic payment ecosystem and the potential role that EMVCo can play in bridging the trust and interoperability gap. The convergence with digital identity was also examined in an Associate presentation by Gary Munro from Consult Hyperion, which considered how developments across the digital identity wallet ecosystem – particularly the need for an interoperable, consistent experience – could have implications for agentic commerce.   Enhancing the authentication experience with EMV 3DS Discussions in Vienna emphasised the role that industry engagement and feedback is playing in shaping the ongoing enhancement of the EMV 3DS Specifications. A dedicated panel featuring Gustavo Kok from Netflix and Andy Brock from Outseer explored opportunities to improve the browser-based out-of-band (OOB) authentication experience. The panel first highlighted the need to consider different user personas, and the potential barrier to adoption between more technology-savvy and less engaged cardholders. Panellists then mentioned the value of the latest dynamic white papers in clarifying use cases and understanding the EMV 3DS Specifications, highlighting how EMVCo has been working with merchants and issuers to publish recommendations that address known challenges when OOB authentication is initiated from a mobile browser to help increase approval rates. Attendees also learned how, in response to industry feedback and to reflect recent changes and advancements across the e-commerce sector, EMVCo has updated its user interface (UI) / user experience (UX) recommendations. This includes work to enhance OOB authentication and the use of one-time passcodes, as well as supporting new considerations presented by digital wallets. EMV SRC beyond e-commerce Following the publication of Version 1.5 of the EMV SRC Specifications, EMVCo is now working to advance the EMV SRC – Click to Pay Customer Experience (CX) Guidelines to help promote a consistent, convenient and secure digital payment experience. Key updates include incorporating insights from consumer research to support the use of passkeys, as well as addressing the display of co-badged cards and enabling consumers to easily and actively consent to new terms and conditions.  Discussions were complemented by an Associate presentation from Olivier Mansart at Cartes