In a move that the company characterizes as a way of synchronizing with other industry EMV initiatives, Discover announced today that merchants and acquirers in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. must comply with the card brand’s EMV specifications in 2013, though no specific date was provided. The announcement also indicates that EMV is already being supported on the Discover Network, with Walmart having processed its first EMV transactions on Discover Network in January.
This industry alignment will streamline certification and deployment efforts and enable a manageable transition for all parties involved, including issuers, merchants and acquirers.
To date, Discover has prioritized its global EMV-deployment efforts towards markets which are mandated or have significant chip-card technology presence already. Discover has deployed D-PAS, the company’s EMV-compliant payment specification, for the past three years and already has over 1 million cards in market among international issuers. Deployment efforts continue in 2012, with close to 100 issuing and acquiring deployments slated across the Diners Club, PULSE and Discover card networks.
“Enabling EMV in North America is a significant step in Discover’s approach toward emerging payments, and clearly a necessary one,” said Troy Bernard, Global Head of Chip Payment Technology at Discover. “We believe each payment solution should enable choice and security within its transaction environment, which is why when it comes to EMV, we’re giving stakeholders choice and flexibility on how they implement it.”
Discover’s approach to EMV is both universal and choice-centric, meaning the company will not restrict any channel, verification process or transaction type. Discover will support:
- All card authentication channels – including online and offline.
- All cardholder verification methods – including both chip & PIN or chip & Signature transactions.
- All commerce channels – including contact and contactless (which includes mobile).
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