As the United States (U.S.) EMV migration deadline gets closer and the deployment of secure mobile services gathers momentum, the new location will provide U.S. payments and near-field-communication (NFC) stakeholders with local access to FIME's global secure-chip testing and certification expertise.

FIME, an advanced consulting and test services provider for end-to-end secure transactions, has launched a San Francisco operation to be in close proximity to its ever-growing customers based in the region. The team will offer consultancy services to assist market participants in developing sustainable secure chip technology implementations, as well as guide parties through the testing and product certification stages. The office will initially offer EMV contactless testing services so that regional stakeholders can confirm that their NFC products perform as intended in the marketplace and have optimal interoperability.

"It is an exciting time for the U.S. payments market as it implements a secure chip infrastructure," says Xavier Giandominici, Director at FIME America and responsible for the launch of the new office. "This not only sees the country migrate to the global EMV payment standard, but also benefit from the endless opportunities this framework presents in terms of NFC technology functionality and the delivery of secure mobile services. To ensure optimum return on investment U.S. payments, NFC and mobile communities should acknowledge future requirements now so that they can implement long-term strategies that are flexible to changing market needs."

FIME America has already played a role in the Canadian EMV migration and is currently supporting the certification requirements of the country's mobile services ecosystem. In August 2012, FIME announced that its Montréal laboratory was the first facility to be authorized by Isis™ to certify Isis products, including mobile handsets and secure elements. FIME America teams are also playing a major role in supporting Latin America's continuous effort towards full EMV migration, with its engineers supporting ATM networks in their effort to meet the liability shift mandate.

Pascal Le Ray, General Manager at FIME, adds: "FIME has over 15 years' experience supporting stakeholders that have implemented EMV — and increasingly NFC — solutions globally. In addition to our knowledge on the standards that are mandatory, we also have expertise on the specifications that will support the next generation of payments and the delivery of value-added services. Understanding this landscape during the product development stages significantly reduces product time to market and provides the capability to quickly adapt to future functional and regulatory updates. We believe the U.S. market will advance quickly and FIME's industry insights offer real advantages to our customers."

FIME has a global presence across America, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and India, through its team of over 200 experts and consultants. The advanced testing provider partners with leading schemes and industry bodies to provide certifications and enhance the secure chip ecosystem. This includes: ACT Canada, American Express, Discover, EMVCo, First Data,) GlobalPlatform, GSMA, Interac, Isis, JCB, MasterCard, NFC Forum, Smart Card Alliance and Visa. More recently, FIME has joined the EMV Migration Forum initiative to share its secure chip knowledge and support the U.S. in streamlining its certification processes.