EMVCo, the EMV standards body collectively owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa, has introduced a new participation framework that will allow all payment industry stakeholders to play a more active role in guiding the organisation’s strategic and technical direction.
The new framework aims to create opportunities for interested organisations, including payment card issuers, acquirers, merchants, processors, card and terminal vendors, networks and their representative associations, to provide input into the enhancement of existing and creation of future EMV specifications for payment technologies.
The newly introduced participation types are EMVCo business associate or an EMVCo technical associate. Organisations that meet qualifying criteria for both types may participate at both levels.
The aim of EMVCo business associate participation is to give all payment card issuers and acquirers, networks and their representative associations, the opportunity to provide EMVCo with input on strategic business and implementation issues related to the use of the EMV specifications.
EMVCo technical associates will have the opportunity to provide input and receive feedback on detailed technical and operational issues connected to the EMV specifications and related processes. The participation type also provides organisations with the opportunity to interact with EMVCo’s technical working groups via quarterly workshops, offer input to meeting agendas, submit technical contributions to EMVCo, and gain early access to draft specifications and other technical documents.
Art Kranzley, chair of the executive committee of EMVCo, said: “By introducing the two new participation types, EMVCo hopes to encourage industry players to engage in EMVCo as a standards organisation. This development is a very positive advancement for the industry and will help to further facilitate the global adoption of EMV through increased accessibility and understanding of the technology.”
Brian Byrne, chairman of the board of managers at EMVCo, said: “The changes to EMVCo’s participation framework will not affect the royalty-free availability of final and published versions of the EMVCo specifications, bulletins, and application notes, type approval process documents and approval lists. EMVCo will continue to provide free industry access to these documents through the EMVCo website.”