Ten Debit Networks Adopt Common U.S. Debit Aid

WESTWOOD, N.J., March 19, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Secure Remote Payment Council (SRPc) today announced that the ten debit network members of its Chip and PIN Workgroup have agreed to adopt a common U.S. debit application identifier (AID) and work with Discover Financial Services to license the D-Payment Application Specification (D-PAS) as the foundation of the common U.S. debit chip payment solution. The Workgroup will also evaluate enhancing the specification's security by including the one-time card number technology developed by First Data / STAR specifically to mitigate impact from skimming and data breach frauds.

"We are honored to have been chosen by the SRPc Chip and PIN Workgroup and feel that the strength of Discover's D-PAS technology, coupled with our universal and choice-centric EMV approach, will enable the market to move forward," said Diane Offereins, President of Payment Services at Discover. "Discover has deployed D-PAS for the past four years and already has millions of cards in market among international issuers. We are confident it is the right path forward for U.S. debit networks."

The Workgroup, working in conjunction with the EMV Migration Forum, defined the foundation requirements for the proposed U.S. debit solution.  This decision will enable the industry to move forward with a known application and process, simplifying changes for all stakeholders.  Supporting a common solution provides the following benefits to payment system participants for the next generation of debit card payment technology. 

• U.S. financial institutions - continue to enjoy a robust and competitive payment industry, and maintain the flexibility to choose the debit networks they support based on business criteria rather than technological boundaries.
• The merchant and acquiring community - maintain their ability to route transactions as they choose, based on their own selection criteria.
• Processors - be able to support their issuing and acquiring clients' plans to move to an enhanced payment type and increased security without the redundant development needed to support multiple chip and PIN solutions.

AFFN®, ATH®, CO-OP Financial Services®, Jeanie®, NETS®, NYCE®, Presto!®, PULSE®, SHAZAM® and STAR® invite all other debit networks to participate in a consortium, which will govern the common U.S. debit solution, and undertake steps to commercialize it.  In addition, advisory membership for merchants, issuers, processors and providers will also be available.

This decision is the culmination of months of evaluation of several proposals – including the most recent AID proposals by MasterCard and Visa.  Evaluation criteria included: maintaining routing choice and network portability; availability of all cardholder verification (CVM) options; inclusion of point-of-sale and ATM transactions; support of contact and contactless transactions; ability to make future enhancements to the solution; inclusion of both current and emerging debit channels; and governance parity.

The debit consortium's next steps will be to finalize its governance structure and identify commercialization steps for deploying the common U.S. debit solution.

Unless all debit networks ultimately participate in this solution, industry stakeholders may need to support a multi-application chip environment for debit in the U.S.  The Workgroup invites all debit networks to join this new consortium to adopt a common U.S. debit AID, minimizing the number of applications needed. The Workgroup maintains that establishing a standard common U.S. debit AID is the best way to avoid unnecessary complexity while achieving higher payment security.

About the Secure Remote Payment Council
The Secure Remote Payment (SRPc) is a nonprofit, inter-industry trade association that supports the growth, development and market adoption of debit based internet eCommerce and mobile channel payment methods that meet or exceed the security standards for pinned based card present payments.  It will accomplish this by encouraging and supporting those activities that accelerate the implementation, adoption and promotion of these payments.  The SRPc's members include merchants, financial institutions, merchant processors, issuer processors, payment brand companies, payments authentication hardware providers, payments authentication software providers and payments consultants.  For additional information, visit www.SecureRemotePaymentCouncil.org.

SOURCE Secure Remote Payment Council