Thales updates EMV data preparation software

P3 provides issuers with increased choice and flexibility to generate EMV data in various formats for use by a wide range of card personalisation systems, located either in-house or in a card production bureau. In line with the card associations' commitment to developing common standards among payments systems, Thales's P3 software is compatible with the latest version of the Common Payment Application (CPA), an EMVCo initiative supported by JCB, MasterCard and Visa that aims to reduce cost and complexity for card issuers.

Thales's long-term support of contactless card issuing is now seeing growing demand for P3 on a global basis. P3 V1.7 supports the latest versions of the MasterCard PayPass, Visa Paywave and JCB J/Speedy contactless applications, ensuring that issuers are able to deploy the applications on all types of proprietary and open standard card types available. P3 V1.7 is already being used to produce cards for one of the UK contactless roll-outs.

Paul Meadowcroft, head of transaction security for the e-security activities of Thales said: "The release of P3 version 1.7 demonstrates that Thales is not only committed to the latest industry regulations but is also forging ahead to offer additional services and solutions beyond current card association requirements. Thales is working closely with the card associations to ensure that they are able to embrace the growing number of challenges they face, including factors such as improving end-to-end payment security and introducing contactless card payments as a means of replacing low value cash transactions."

Security is an integral part of the P3 application design, together with the P3CM range of crypto modules. Thales ensures that its products are compatible with the card association physical and security audit requirements and the latest version of P3 also strengthens its compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).