American Express Issues Guidelines for Chip-Based Contact

NEW YORK -- American Express Co. set forth guidelines for all merchants of its cards to follow regarding EuroPay, MasterCard and VISA (EMV) chip-based contact, contactless and mobile payments. According to the company, it plans to drive interoperability across the United States and other countries and support chip-based technology for chip and PIN, chip and signature, contactless and mobile transactions.

Specifically, American Express is requiring all of its retailers, processors and issuers to support its EMV chip-based contact by April 2013. In addition, the credit card giant said that by Oct. 2013, merchants will be eligible to receive relief from payment card industry (PCI) Data Security Standard reporting requirements if the merchants' point-of-sale (POS) acceptance locations are enabled to process American Express EMV contact and contactless transactions.

American Express issued one more guideline as part of what it calls its network roadmap. Effective Oct. 2015, American Express will institute a Fraud Liability Shift policy that will transfer liability for certain types of fraudulent transactions away from the party that has the most secure for of EMV. However, of special interest to the convenience store industry, the company announced that U.S. fuel merchants will have an additional two years -- until Oct. 2017 -- before the Fraud Liability Shift policy takes effect for transactions generated from automated fuel dispensers.

"The payments industry is continuing to evolve rapidly, and American Express recognizes the growing demand for chip-based contact and contactless payments in the U.S.," said Suzan Kereere, Senior Vice President and General Manager, American Express Global Network Business. "We also fully recognize the complexities involved in migrating to EMV chip-based technology, and our first priority is to provide choice and flexibility for merchants and our card-issuing partners so they can adopt the EMV solution that best meets their needs."

American Express currently processes millions of EMV transactions.