Under the category of a rising tide lifts all boats, standards-making organizations EMVCo and NFC Forum announced their intention to synchronize their efforts to build out EMV/NFC use cases.
This alliance is an important step in enabling the build out of a contactless ecosystem as each organization consists of the major global payments networks, handset manufacturers, point-of-sale device developers, and assorted other industry stakeholders. It is, however, just a first step.
As the list of particpants grows, so does the challenge to create consensus and as a result, the initial goal is to collaborate on Level 1 functionality. Broad certification and resulting acceptance capabilities around contactless NFC transactions could be a further indication of a short life span for offline EMV transactions.
From Finextra:
Activity will focus on Level 1 functionality, which covers contactless communication protocol. Initial efforts will centre on outlining the scope of work and the specifications to be covered. These efforts will be followed by a gap analysis to identify and examine specification differences, agree on specification updates where necessary and how agreed amendments will be collectively managed.
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