This is an exciting time in the payments industry as new technology such as EMV, NFC and mobile payments begin to gain mainstream traction. Continually a leader in innovation, Harbortouch recently unveiled our new “future-proof” payment terminal, Perkwave, to support this evolving landscape. The Perkwave terminal features a proprietary EMV-enabled credit card terminal integrated with a customer-facing NFC reader. The Perkwave terminal can also be updated remotely to support additional payment methods in the future.

What should I know about EMV?

Credit cards with EMV capability, or “smart cards”, include an embedded microprocessor that provides robust security features and other applications not possible with traditional magnetic stripe cards. EMV transactions utilize “dynamic digital data” in every transaction, resulting in extremely secure transactions with a reduced chance of fraud. Due to the benefits offered by EMV, this technology has become the standard in over 100 countries including Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia. In fact, according to EMVCo ( www.emvco.com ), approximately 44.7% of the total payment cards in circulation are EMV cards and 76.4% of the POS terminals installed globally accept EMV. The US is one of the last countries to implement EMV technology. However, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover have all announced plans to move to an EMV-based payments infrastructure in the US by 2015. This means that the card brands will be migrating to this technology going forward and merchants will be required to accept EMV payments in order to remain compliant with Visa/MasterCard regulations.

What should I know about NFC?

Near field communication technology, or NFC, allows consumers to simply wave their phone in front of a special reader to pay for goods. This technology has strong support from well-known and well-financed companies such as Google, Verizon, AT&T and others. This backing, combined with the increased prevalence of NFC-enabled smart phones, makes it very likely that NFC will reach mainstream adoption in the very near future. In fact, the number of NFC enabled phones grew from 7 million in 2011 to 140 million by the end of 2012 and is estimated to reach 1 billion units in 2017 (Source: Berg Insight)! Further, it is estimated that 65% of people will use their phones to pay for goods by 2020 (Source: Pew Research)! This represents a huge market of potential customers that can’t be ignored.