The Council also announced its new officers and steering committee, including new co-chairs Simon Hurry from Visa and Oliver Manahan from MasterCard.

"With most of the world moving to EMV chip payments and experimenting with other chip-based applications, the big question within the U.S. payments industry is, 'How would chip affect the United States?'" said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "The Payments Council has worked tirelessly this year examining this very question, providing extensive educational material on chip-enabled payments -- including EMV, contactless and mobile payments, and chip-based solutions that enable innovation and help address counterfeit fraud."

With its expanded focus on all chip-enabled payments, the Payments Council published a number of resources for the payments industry this year, including new Web resources for information and news on EMV ("EMV Resources") and Near Field Communications ("NFC Resources"). The Council also held a webinar on "Top 10 Reasons U.S. Should Consider EMV" and published the white papers "Chip-Enabled Mobile Marketing," "EMV Chip Cards Expected for Upscale U.S. Cardholders," "Fraud in the U.S. Payments Industry," and "End-to-End Encryption and Chip Cards in the U.S. Payments Industry," all available on the Payments Council Web site.

"The Payments Council is a valuable forum at which industry stakeholders can align and provide direction for the future," said new co-chair Simon Hurry, senior business leader, Visa Inc. "With momentum building for mobile payments and other chip-enabled solutions, I am looking forward to working with the Council to examine how these advancements will affect the future payments infrastructure."

"The Smart Card Alliance Payments Council is an organization that brings together industry players that may have divergent disciplines but are still focused on commerce," said new co-chair, Oliver Manahan, vice president, MasterCard Worldwide. "We are in store for an exciting year in the payments industry, with many contactless transit payment projects in development, and buzz continuing to grow for mobile payment. It will be valuable to discuss and debate the economic impacts related to chip-based payments and applications in other areas, and create resources based on those findings."

The Payments Council is made up of over 150 individuals from over 50 organizations, including card issuers, payment brands, merchants, financial payment processors, terminal vendors, card manufacturers, chip vendors, systems integrators/consultants, and personalization bureaus. The new officers are:

* Co-chairs: Simon Hurry, Visa and Oliver Manahan, MasterCard
* Vice chair: Troy Bernard, Discover Financial Services
* Secretary: Deborah Baxley, Capgemini

Members of the 2010/2011 Steering Committee are:

* Deborah Baxley, Capgemini
* Troy Bernard, Discover Financial Services
* Jo Ann Davaris, American Express
* Jason Dell, First Data Corporation
* Willy Dommen, Booz Allen Hamilton
* Michael English, Heartland Payment Systems
* Simon Hurry, Visa, Inc.
* Jack Jania, Gemalto
* Mohammad Khan, ViVOtech
* Paul Legacki, Infineon Technologies
* Michelle Lehouck, CPI Card Group
* Dan Loomis, VeriFone
* Oliver Manahan, MasterCard Worldwide
* Ron Pinkus, G&D
* Dori Skelding, Chase Card Services
* Garfield Smith, Oberthur Technologies
* Charles Walton, INSIDE Contactless