EMV & NFC

---

Have you noticed the small rectangular chip on your credit card? That chip represents the technology involved with EMV.

EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa. It is a standard in the credit card industry for integrated circuit cards, point of sale terminals, and ATMs.

Historically, credit and debit cards only used a magnetic stripe to manage cardholder data. The cardholder would then sign a receipt at purchase.

This system did not provide a high level of security, as a signature can be forged, and the magnetic stripe proved relatively easy to hack and duplicate—revealing the cardholder's private information to criminals.

The chip you see on an EMV card operates like a tiny computer. It is there to mitigate fraud risk and protect your personal information.

The tiny "computer" in your card contains an integrated circuit chip, which encodes every transaction differently. If a criminal intercepts data from a chip card's transaction, the data cannot be reused to make another purchase.

Almost every single payment card issued today is an EMV card. That means all you have to do is make sure you have a point of sale system that is EMV-compatible, and you'll take an essential step towards protecting your customers.

To process an EMV transaction, the credit card is inserted vertically, chip first, into an EMV-enabled reader instead of swiping it horizontally on a magstripe reader.

That's it – simple and secure!

 NFC (near field communication) is a subset of RFID (radio-frequency identification), a technology that allows us to identify objects through radio waves. RFID is nothing new — it's been used for decades to scan items in grocery stores, identify luggage in baggage claims, and even tag cattle.

NFC, which was introduced in the early 2000s, uses a specific RFID frequency for close-range communications.

That means that two NFC-equipped devices can communicate with each other when they're close together.

You’ve probably already seen NFC in action. If you stood in line at a store and watched someone hold their smartphone near the payment terminal, then walk away without opening their wallet, you've witnessed the magic of NFC.

How did they just hold their phone up to a payment terminal and walk away a few seconds later?

The simplicity of the answer might surprise you - all you need is an NFC-equipped mobile device (almost all new phones are NFC-equipped) and an NFC-enabled point of sale system.

If you have those two components, technology will do the rest.

When a contactless payment is initiated by a customer holding or tapping a mobile device to the payment terminal, the NFC technology goes to work. Using a specific RFID frequency, the NFC-enabled reader and the smartphone pass encrypted information back and forth to each other to complete the payment.

And the best part is - the whole process takes just a matter of seconds.

This may sound almost too good to be true. However, keep in mind that if your point of sale system is not NFC-enabled, the process won't work. 
 

• Perhaps the most popular example of contactless payment is Apple Pay. It works on any Apple products produced after the iPhone 6.
• Don’t worry, Android users! You haven’t been left behind.
• Common examples of NFC for non-Apple users are Google Pay and Samsung Pay.
• Some debit and credit cards have NFC technology that allows the customer to pay for items by tapping or waving their card above the card reader or terminal. These types of cards are called contactless payments cards.

The technology that both NFC and EMV uses is fascinating!

But, not everything new and flashy is beneficial. Is investing in an NFC and EMV compatible point of sale system worth it?

Yes.

We've already touched on some of the benefits of these technologies, but let’s dig a little deeper and take a closer look at the benefits of supporting NFC and EMV. 

There are so many benefits to making sure your point of sale system is NFC compatible. Here are a few examples:. 

• NFC technology is here to stay. It is continually growing in popularity. By supporting NFC, you prove to your customers that you are keeping up with trends, and using the best technology available. 
• Roughly 40% of people have downloaded at least one mobile payment app to their phones.
• NFC transactions are fast - they take just seconds. 
• NFC can be used for more than just payments. Things such as reservations, booking tickets, and entry/exit passes can also be NFC compatible.
• NFC does not require manual configurations, pairing, or settings (like Bluetooth) - just an NFC compatible POS system. 
• NFC is more secure than traditional magnetic stripe payment cards
• Smartphone payments offer new revenue sources via marketing offers and loyalty programs that can be transmitted directly from the merchant to the device.
• NFC increases workplace efficiency.
• NFC is the most convenient way to pay - customers don't even have to dig out their wallets or purses. 

• EMV transactions are secure and authenticated, which reduces the risk of fraud.
• By installing an EMV reader, you place liability on the card issuer in the case of fraud. Without an EMV reader, you may be liable in the case of credit card fraud. 
• Almost everyone has an EMV card, so you'll always get paid. 
• EMV is a global standard. Even foreign guests can use their cards in your business. 
• EMV systems can operate in offline mode. Because EMV cards contain microprocessors that can interact with terminals, they can perform offline transaction verification and offline cardholder verification.
• Chip card payments offer new revenue sources via marketing offers and loyalty programs that can be transmitted directly from the merchant to the card.

There are plenty of benefits to incorporating both NFC and EMV into your point of sale system.