Issuers Should Make Infrastructure Migration to EMV and NFC Simultaneously, White Paper Argues

EMV and NFC adoption are both hot topics in the US payments industry, with most of the buzz focused on the question of when the US will widely adopt these technologies. The US is well behind other countries in adopting both technologies. EMV is already standard in much of the rest of the world, and NFC has more traction in other countries such as Japan.

The US began the slow march to EMV adoption over the past year, while NFC seems to be on a more distant horizon after Apple ignored the technology in the iPhone 5. A new white paper released by consulting firm Frost & Sullivan argues that the US card issuers and acquirers should prepare for both EMV and NFC adoption in one infrastructure switch.

Making one infrastructure investment that could enable EMV payments while preparing for future payments solutions like NFC would be an obvious benefit for everyone involved. The white paper, titled "Managing the Migration to EMV and NFC Payment Technology - How to Ensure the Successful and Efficient Deployment of a Product," also provides insights for issuers and acquirers into how they can manage the infrastructure migration to EMV, and how that can support NFC and other next generation payments solutions.

"There is no doubt that the great impact during EMV adoption is on the issuer who has to modify the back office system, the authorization system as well as the customer service," said Jean-Noel Georges, Frost & Sullivan's Global Program Manager Smart Cards.

[See Related: Will EMV Prevent ATM Fraud?]

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio