[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

MasterCard is migrating from magnetic stripe to EMV technology currently available on “chip” cards. Here is how, says the company.

Chris McWilton (President, U.S. Markets, MasterCard): We’re moving toward a world beyond plastic, where consumers will shop and pay in a way that best fits their needs and lifestyles with a simple tap, click or touch in-store, online or on a mobile device.

MasterCard has developed a roadmap  for the migration from magnetic strips to EMV technology currently available on “chip” cards. The direction ahead includes solidifying EMV as the foundation of the next generation of payments, focus on acquirer infrastructure and working with them to ensure infrastructure readiness by April 2013, encouraging greater security and cardholder verification, and providing incentives for merchant terminalization for merchants as they implement EMV-compatible terminals, among other things.

MasterCard says it supports the need for the payments ecosystem to be aligned regarding the implementation of EMV standards in the U.S, and will support current industry timelines.

When a consumer uses an EMV-enabled device to pay at an EMV terminal, it can be instantly identified as an authentic, approved payment instrument belonging to that consumer through a process called dynamic authentication. When used with a PIN (Personal Identification Number), the chip verifies that the consumer is indeed holding his or her own device.

EMV is a global standard for credit and debit payment cards based on chip card technology. As of Q3 2011, there were more than 1.34 billion EMV compliant chip-based payment cards in use worldwide. EMV chip-based payment cards, also known as smart cards, contain an embedded microprocessor chip, that contains the information needed to use the card for payment.