New FIME White Paper: What the U.S. Merchant Community Needs to Know about EMV Chip Implementation

White paper offers merchants and VARs practical education and best practices for chip deployment.

2015 is expected to be a landmark year of progress for the U.S. migration to EMV chip payments. It is also the year when, starting Oct. 1, the payment brands will start to shift liability for fraudulent transactions to merchants if they haven’t upgraded their systems to accept chip cards. While it’s probable that the “big box” merchants will be ready, there are millions of mid-sized merchants and value-added resellers (VARs) that are only just starting to learn about chip technology and beginning implementation project plans.

To help this merchant community understand the changes and challenges associated with introducing EMV chip technology to the U.S. and to get started on the right path to chip deployment, payments consultancy FIME has released the white paper, “EMV Chip Migration for U.S. Merchant Community: Implementing Chip in the Complex U.S. Acceptance Environment.” Download now : FIME Whitepaper on EMV migration for US Merchants.

“Introducing EMV chip payments in the U.S. is not a simple card technology change. It is a paradigm shift of the payments ecosystem, as chip introduces transaction, processing and system requirements that are fundamentally different from magnetic stripe,” said Xavier Giandominici, director of FIME America. “FIME is providing this white paper for the U.S. acceptance community to better understand the complexities around introducing chip, and to offer some best implementation practices for getting a chip-accepting solution to market in as timely and efficient manner as possible.”

This white paper provides the merchant community with essential education about the introduction of chip payments in the U.S., including:

• The fundamental changes that chip technology introduces to the U.S. payments ecosystem
• How introducing chip affects the payment acceptance infrastructure and current payment acceptance systems
• The challenges for introducing chip implementation for payment acceptance
• Opportunities for standardization to reduce implementation, integration, certification and maintenance costs
• The top chip implementation steps, best practices and considerations

FIME is heavily involved in chip implementation projects for acquirers, merchants and issuers throughout the U.S. The company recently expanded its San Jose headquarters to accommodate the increasing demand for consulting and end-to-end testing services for the U.S. EMV chip migration. For more information on FIME’s offerings, visit http://www.fime.com/emv-consulting.html.

The authors of the white paper are Stuart Miller, bank products and services business line manager, FIME and guest expert writer Emmanuel Haydont, partner, Amadis. Today, FIME and Amadis are working together to provide state-of-the-art payment solutions that are developed by experts and validated by an independent third party laboratory.