The white paper aims to educate stakeholders -- issuers, merchants, acquirers/processors, and suppliers of hardware, software, and support services -- about the critical aspects of deploying an EMV solution in their unique business environments.

To reduce counterfeit fraud and help diminish the value of stolen cardholder data, nearly every country in the world is widely deploying EMV; now, the United States is following suit. Within the last year, the four major U.S. payment brands have announced harmonized key milestones for U.S. implementation of EMV. The white paper, an extensive update from the first version released in February 2011, contains all of the important details of the milestones and recommended implementation guidelines from American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa in one document for the first time.

Additional white paper topics include:

--- An overview of the EMV specifications and key implementation options for issuers, acquirers/processors, merchants and ATM operators.
--- A discussion of the relationship between U.S. contactless bank card transactions and EMV and the relationship between the Near Field Communications (NFC) specifications and EMV.
--- Actions stakeholders need to take to issue EMV cards, and to accept and process EMV transactions.

"Now that all of the major payment brands have announced their plans and milestones, we are anticipating fairly rapid deployment of EMV in the U.S., harmonized with contactless and NFC payments acceptance," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "Through this white paper containing all of the latest information and guidance, the Payments Council is providing guidance about the roadmap for EMV migration to make this important shift in the United States as seamless and successful as possible."

The white paper is in addition to a number of educational initiatives the Smart Card Alliance is providing to the industry onstry on EMV chip migration. Last summer, the Alliance launched the website EMV Connection (http://www.emv-connection.com/), which provides up-to-date information on the status of EMV migration, along with tutorials and educational resources that will assist with migration.

The Alliance has also formed an independent, cross-industry organization, the EMV Migration Forum, that supports the alignment of the EMV implementation steps required for global payment networks, regional payment networks, issuers, acquirers/processors, merchants, and consumers to successfully move from magnetic stripe technology to secure EMV contact and contactless technology in the United States. 

Get the paper here