MasterCard and Visa have agreed to align their respective PIN Entry Device (PED) security requirements and approval procedures.
Under the agreement, the two competing card schemes say they will standardise security requirements, testing methodologies and procedures for approving PEDs.
As of 1 October 2004, all PEDs submitted for security testing will be evaluated against the new aligned Payment Card Industry PED Security Requirements. Until then, MasterCard and Visa will continue to recognise products evaluated against their existing requirements.
Brian Buckley, SVP, international risk management at Visa, says: "In the past, vendors had to complete proprietary testing at multiple laboratories to meet the security requirements of all the global and local payment schemes. Today, card and terminal vendors can dramatically reduce the complexity of new product development by undergoing security testing at one approval centre."
Simon Pugh, VP, infrastructure and standards, MasterCard, says one approval method will benefit vendors as they will only be required to complete a single security evaluation process, and will simplify the task of deploying PIN Entry Devices for acquirers.
The companies says they are also working towards reaching similar agreements with other key industry players in the near future.