Achieving these two Canadian EMV chip milestones, coupled with its prior EMV chip certification with VISA, provides Global Payments with the capability to process EMV chip transactions in Canada for each of these major card types, and represents a significant milestone for Canadian merchants and solution providers alike.

Global Payments also offers EMV chip certification in other markets including Central and Eastern Europe through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Global Payments Europe.

Chip enabled payment cards contain a small microchip that securely stores encrypted data designed to identify the card and the cardholder. Chip cards can carry sophisticated security programs and, in Canada, will also require PIN entry by the cardholder for chip transactions, a combination that provides better protection against unauthorized use of a credit or debit card when used at a chip-enabled POS device.

The Canadian payment card industry previously announced plans to migrate towards chip technology and the EMV Chip standards, in order to prevent fraud and increase security.

"This accomplishment represents Global Payments' ongoing commitment to provide our significant Canadian customer base with leading-edge solutions and builds upon our market leadership in technology implementation and certification," said President of Global Payments Canada, Jordan Cohen.

"Additionally, being among the first, if not the first processor in Canada, to announce our ability to certify our customer's payment solutions for VISA, MasterCard, and Interac Direct Payment EMV Chip reflects Global's pledge to provide one-stop shopping to Canadian merchants, as they look to enable seamless chip adoption and payment acceptance interoperability in their stores," Cohen added.