Fiserv Inks Agreement with MasterCard for Debit EMV Solution for Accel Network (March 13, 2014)
Fiserv Inc. has opted to make MasterCard’s U.S. common debit application identifier (AID) available for its Accel debit network, as another piece falls into place in the U.S. debit networks’ EMV transaction-routing puzzle. Morris Plains, N.J.-based Accel is the first of the debit networks to reach an agreement for using MasterCard’s AID, first offered in January 2013 as an option to route EMV debit transactions under federal requirements. Under the Durbin Amendment of 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act, merchants must have at least two choices between unaffiliated payment networks. Pressure is building to nail down EMV migration plans as the calendar ticks closer to the October 2015 liability shifts in the U.S., when any issuer or merchant unprepared to process an EMV transaction must bear the cost of counterfeit card fraud at the POS.
First Data Corp. in late February made the first move among debit networks seeking a solution for a common AID when it announced it will license Visa’s common AID to facilitate EMV transactions for its STAR Network.
Discover also offered an AID also available to debit networks. Observers predicted First Data’s move could spark action from other debit networks still wrestling with their decisions. Altogether the U.S. has 18 debit networks and many more have yet to announce their plans for routing EMV debit transactions.
The recent moves by First Data and Fiserv demonstrate real progress in working out details essential for the U.S. EMV migration, Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance and EMV Migration Forum, tells Paybefore. It will take some additional time before all of the debit network routing decisions are finalized. “Having separate common AIDs means that each regional debit network needs to decide for itself which AIDs they want to participate in, and there has to be agreement to business terms put in place,” he says.
