MasterCard Assigns Contactless Communication Protocol to EMVCo
MasterCard Worldwide has assigned the PayPass ISO/IEC 14443 Implementation Specification v1.1 to EMVCo, the EMV standards body jointly owned by JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International, in a move that signals significant progress towards a common platform for contactless EMV payment transactions. This contribution will be the basis for the EMV Contactless Communication Protocol Specification, to be released in the second quarter of 2007. Until then, EMVCo will administer the licensing and distribution of the PayPass ISO/IEC 14443 Implementation Specification v1.1, which defines a contactless communication protocol and associated testing requirements for radio frequency-based contactless payments at the point of sale. It is an established specification already in use by JCB, MasterCard and Visa. Ownership of the contactless communication protocol specification has been assigned to EMVCo to further the organisation’s efforts to create common standards, globally, for contactless EMV payment transactions that will be available to all of its payment system members. There are no technical changes to the specification with this assignment of ownership. The specification will support all existing EMV-based contactless solutions and will, in the longer term, provide the foundation for the development of a common contactless EMV application by EMVCo. The specification will be made available to the industry on a royalty-free basis under licence by EMVCo. EMVCo will shortly announce a timeline for the availability of type approval testing to the new EMVCo standard, first for contactless readers and then for cards.