Retailers Looking For Pan-European EMV Solution
Under current EMV goals, the UK is aiming to convert 50 per cent of its credit card transactions to chip and PIN by mid-2004, which the ECR expects top and bottom-end retailers to easily achieve. The UK's largest retailers want to leverage their chip and PIN investments in all the countries in which they operate, and many will take the chance to standardize their systems. One unnamed supermarket chain, for instance, plans to standardize its EMV and PIN system in its UK and German stores, according to Raja Ray, product marketing director at Trintech.Grocery chain, Tesco, may standardize its POS platform internationally and streamline processes across the three regions in which [it] operates, says treasurer, Nick Mourant. Tesco may use "the same platform for its Far East and Central European operations", Mourant reveals, but this depends on how local issuing banks and acquirers interpret the EMV standards. Retailers' relationships with acquirers may change, with Ray noting that pan-European acquirers may have difficulty handling local debit cards, as over 80 per cent of debit cards in Germany are not EMV-compliant. "Most card transaction processing in most countries is debit card- rather than credit card-based", Ray explains, which creates its own barriers. Even so, some "single-country acquirers are looking to go into pan-European acquiring relationships", the ECR quotes Steve Lanaway of LogicaCMG as saying, but will have to address network interfaces and messages to support a national standard. To this end, retailers like Tesco will be keen to place their acquiring with the most efficient operators and "will pursue that" as far as association rules will allow, Tesco's Mourant says. Related Links:
