The US is catching up with EMV

The news from Visa yesterday moving forward with EMV in the US should not be that surprising - it was inevitable that the move had to happen and it needed a major industry leader to stand up and take a stance - but, still, it is certainly very significant. This isn't just a technology change - this is much bigger movement towards advanced payment technologies and global standards.  In fact, the impact and importance of this announcement is rivaled by few others in the history of US card payments.

This will change the face of payments in the US - once EMV is rolled out the US won't be a global 'weak link' when it comes to fraud, namely with counterfeit cards; US issued cards will be accepted in many more countries around the world; fraud liability will change; and financial institutions, retailers and consumers will all be in the best place to prevent financial crime. But this announcement is more than that. It is the first, very important, stepping stone to new payment types and form factors - namely mobile NFC . Currently there is no global standard for mobile or NFC, but getting to one standard and one common technology for chips on cards is a major inflection point in the US towards the next generation of payments technologies.

The news from Visa will impact different types of organizations in different ways, and will certainly be the topic of a lot of discussion over the upcoming weeks and months about how to make the changes necessary.  What will also be interesting to watch is what MasterCard, American Express and other payment associations have to say about this news.