PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., OCTOBER 15, 2012–Industry leaders from across the broad payments market are marking their calendars in anticipation of the EMV Migration Forum’s next meeting, to be held December 6-7 at Visa’s corporate headquarters in Foster City, CA. The Forum, an independent organization created by the Smart Card Alliance, supports the coordination of the implementation steps required to successfully migrate from magnetic stripe technology to secure EMV contact and contactless technology in the United States.

The EMV Migration Forum meeting is expected to draw attendees from all of the global payment brands and other stakeholders representing financial institutions, merchants, processors, acquirers, regional debit networks, device manufacturers and industry associations who have joined the Forum. The December meeting will continue the progress being made by the working committees and include working sessions for attendees to explore in more detail the key challenges that the payments industry faces in moving to EMV.

The December meeting will be for EMV Migration Forum member organizations and industry associations representing groups of stakeholder members only. Membership applications are available at http://www.emv-connection.com/membership-application-and-bylaws.

“We are seeing Forum membership continuing to grow rapidly, with 38 members thus far. This is a positive sign that industry organizations are taking the timelines for the U.S. EMV migration seriously and that they recognize the critical need for cooperation and collaboration to ensure a seamless and effective migration to EMV-enabled cards, devices, and terminals in the United States,” said Randy Vanderhoof, acting director of the EMV Migration Forum. “Our members see a real value in being a part of the only neutral cross-industry forum of organizations that includes everyone with a key role in EMV migration in the U.S.”

Many of those organizations expected to attend the December meeting have already volunteered to join special interest working committees formed after the initial EMV Migration Forum meeting in September. The committees are:

• Debit and EMV Working Committee
• Communication and Education Working Committee
• Achieving U.S. Coordination Working Committee
• Certification and Testing Working Committee

These committees are meeting regularly by phone to establish the objectives for each committee, coordinate their mission with the goals of the full organization, and establish initial projects. For more information about the committees and to participate in the initial committee calls, please contact Cathy Medich at cmedich@smartcardalliance.org.

Complete details on the next meeting, including how to register and hotel options are available online. For more information on EMV and the EMV Migration Forum, visit http://www.emv-connection.com.

About U.S. EMV Migration

Commonly used globally in place of magnetic stripe, EMV chip technology drastically reduces card fraud resulting from counterfeit, lost and stolen cards; provides global interoperability; and enables safer and smarter transactions across cards, contactless, mobile, and remote payment channels. American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa have all announced their plans for moving to an EMV-based payments infrastructure in the U.S., with payment processor mandates in place for 2013, and major changes for managing fraud risk set for 2015.

About the EMV Migration Forum

The EMV Migration Forum is a cross-industry body focused on supporting an alignment of the EMV implementation steps required for global and regional payment networks, issuers, processors, merchants, and consumers to ensure a successful move from magnetic stripe technology to more secure EMV contact and contactless technology in the United States. The focus of the Forum is to address topics that require some level of industry cooperation and/or coordination to migrate successfully to EMV technology in the United States. For more information on the EMV Migration Forum, please visit /activities-emv-migration-forum.