EMVCo to Hold First User Meeting, June 30-July 1, in Munich

Throughout the meeting, EMVCo representatives will deliver presentations to educate participants on the organisation’s technical activities and strategic vision to extend the EMV Specifications to address new markets and technologies. Roundtable discussions will follow, enabling delegates to provide valuable ‘grass roots’ feedback to the standards body on its current activities and future direction relative to market requirements. In line with EMVCo’s role as a technical standards body, the meeting is intended as an interactive forum on technical EMV issues and developments. EMV business models, marketing and sales strategies will not feature on the agenda.

Two keynote speakers have been invited to deliver presentations at the EMV User Meeting:

• Claude Brun, Vice Chair of the European Payments Council, will address the implementation of the SEPA initiative for payment cards based on EMV technology.
• Dr. Nav Bains, Senior Director of the GSMA Pay-Buy-Mobile Project, will discuss the importance of cross-industry collaboration to enable and grow mobile payments infrastructure.

Tad Fordyce, Chairman of the EMVCo Executive Committee, comments: “EMVCo has a strong history of engaging with stakeholders in its standards development work. This meeting, where interested parties can interact in person with EMVCo representatives, is intended to build on that and to encourage participation from the global payments industry in the work of the standards body as it evolves the EMV Specifications to address contactless and mobile payments technology. A regular dialogue between EMVCo and industry representatives, such as merchants, vendors, consultants, payment systems, laboratories and regional associations, is vital to ensure that future standardisation efforts are reflective of the needs of the global payments community.”

EMVCo launched a subscriber programme in February 2009 at www.emvco.com/subscriber to broaden industry participation in the development work of the organisation and promote greater transparency regarding EMVCo activities. For an annual subscription fee of $750 per user, the programme allows EMV stakeholders to access advance information regarding revisions to EMV Specifications and to comment on draft documents. Subscribers are also able to make direct contact with EMVCo to solicit feedback or guidance in respect of technical issues.

The EMV User Meeting has been launched in conjunction with the subscriber programme and as such individuals wishing to attend the meeting must first become an EMVCo subscriber. An early bird rate - $249 – will be applied to all meeting registrations confirmed before 31 May 2009. After this date, the full meeting registration fee - $495- will be applied.

Further details on registering for the EMV User Meeting can be found at http://www.emvco.com/munich.