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EMV & EMV Chips

EMV is an acronym for the founding companies who came together to build a common specification: Europay (now part of Visa), MasterCard®, and Visa®. These companies formed EMVCo in order to administer international standards to champion global interoperability for chip-based payment cards. This includes, but is not limited to, card and terminal evaluation, security evaluation, and management of interoperability issues.

An EMV chip is the small, square computer chip that appears on payment cards to help safeguard them against fraud.

What is the importance of EMV?

EMV specifications provide a common foundation for adopting technologies that are proven to increase security and fight fraud. Banks, merchants, vendors, and national and regional payment networks in the U.S. and around the world use EMV specifications to develop products for seamless and secure in-store, online, and remote card-based payments.

How does EMV work?

There are three parts to an EMV transaction, which helps secure different aspects of that transaction: card authentication, cardholder verification, and transaction authorization. EMV payment processes can happen online (processes are performed by computers elsewhere on the payment network) and/or offline (processes are performed between the point of sale (POS) terminal and the card’s chip).

In general, the process is:

  1. Based on issuer qualifications, risk assessment is performed by both the POS terminal and the chip on the card, and a dynamic ARQC (Authorization Request Cryptogram) is generated
  2. The ARQC is sent via the acquirer to the payment brand
  3. The payment brand then sends the ARQC to the issuer
  4. The issuer makes an authorization decision to validate the request, and responds with an ARPC (Authorization Response Cryptogram), which goes through the same channels back to the POS device
  5. If the chip’s request is validated, the POS terminal will request verification from the cardholder in the form of a signature or entry of a PIN, or in some cases no verification

Is contactless the only form of EMV?

No, it is not. Today, there are EMV specifications based on contact chip, contactless chip, common payment application (CPA), card personalization, and tokenization. These specifications and requirements were developed to increase payment security and efficiency, and to ensure global interoperability amid payment ecosystems.

What does Entrust offer for EMV implementation?

Entrust provides clear guidance and expertise to help simplify the EMV complexities and streamline the EMV instant issuance process. Below is an overview of each Entrust project phase and its related deliverables. For more specifics, please refer to the detailed project plan provided by an Entrust representative. Project progress and implementation timeline rely heavily on a timely completion of deliverables.

Which Entrust solutions support EMV?

Entrust supports a wide range of financial solutions, including EMV card printers. To learn more about how Entrust can help you and your customers, join our next lunch & learn.