The Secure Remote Payments Council, originally formed to promote PIN debit online, is organizing a working group to consider the implications of EMV strategies on PIN debit products in the United States. Even though the debate has begun as to whether chip-and-signature or chip-and-PIN is the right product configuration, the fact remains the U.S. market is pretty much anyone’s game. Looking for a position within a very immature environment, it’s probably the right time for the EFT networks to begin to consider getting behind a set of standards the industry can reasonably deploy in the near term. One would expect that competitive differences will emerge, however, without standards of some kind, issuers are left even more confused than they are already. From a Green Sheet article:
The pace and focus of chip technology development within the U.S. has increased significantly over the last nine months. The SRPc and the debit networks are concerned that the current international standards for chip technology do not consider the competitive, newly regulated, real-time payment infrastructure within the U.S. For example, the new regulations on debit card interchange fees and routing now require that issuers support at least two unaffiliated brands on debit cards in order to provide merchant routing choice — a requirement that will need to be accommodated within chip technology going forward. Deployment of a single interoperable chip and PIN solution for PIN debit should put in place one of the biggest remaining puzzle pieces to spur the U.S. payment industry toward adoption of chip technology.
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