EMV chip card transactions improve security against fraud compared to magnetic stripe card transactions that rely only on card holder’s signature and a visual inspection of the card at check out or a requested ID from the customer to reconfirm they are the card holder.  Holograms and other low level security attempts have been made to make the card presented harder to counterfeit.

EMV is a joint effort initially conceived by Europay, MasterCard and Visa to ensure the security and global interoperability of chip-based payment cards.  EMV specifications are being phased in across the world, under names such as “IC Credit” and “Chip and PIN” and phase one in the U.S. is “Chip and Sig”.

The EMV standards coming to the U.S. define the interaction at the actual data and application levels between chip embedded (EMV cards) and card processing devices for any of your financial transactions.

Unlike the magnetic strip on the back of current credit cards in America the EMV chip breaks down the customer’s information into separate packets of information.

Then the transaction process tokenizes the different information packets and sends them out in separate blasts to the transaction hub eliminating the threat of to the consumer of stealing  any of the customer sensitive credit card information.   Tokenizing makes all of the data for the transaction low value and not ever reusable (in the event the data were intercepted).

In the U.S. the first phase of the EMV conversion is scheduled for October 1st of 2015. POS software companies are testing and writing to devices that should be available this summer to preorder and for general release in the fall to start to become EMV compliant by October 1st of 2015.

TTSI Payments offers EMV ready devices that can be purchased today but the network for the acceptance of the EMV transactions however phase one of the U.S. rollout is still pending for later in 2015. Unlike other countries, the phase one implementation of the EMV roll out in the United States is for Chip and signature (only) which is very similar to credit card acceptance with the magnetic strip today.  Phase one uses the tokenization of EMV standards to remove security issues related to schemes to steal transaction data in the network (sometimes referred to as man in the middle threats).

TTSI Payments remains diligent with our partners and our customers to offer compliant solutions as soon as they become available and to always offer our customers the highest form of fast secure transactions available in the market. For further information about EMV processing compliance of your business please address any questions or concerns to your TTSI Payments sales representative.