Driven by consumer expectations, commerce is moving to quick, secure, frictionless payment experiences at the point-of-sale (POS). Contactless payments provide a foundation for future payments innovation, are the logical next step following EMV migration, and will create a consistent experience at the POS. To help accelerate the adoption of contactless payments in the U.S., Visa has introduced a series of initiatives for merchants and Value Added Resellers (VARs). These initiatives include streamlining testing requirements and establishing incentive programs for VARs to speed the adoption of contactless and Quick Chip technology.

Clearent, Magtek, Payworks, Phoenix Managed Networks, RevChip and Tenerum have participated in Visa’s VAR incentive programs, which help VARs offset test tool and acquirer certification costs for new Quick Chip and contactless certifications. As a result, all of these companies have been able to reduce their time to develop, test and implement contactless and Quick Chip solutions from 6-12 months to 1-2 months. Collectively, these organizations represent over 100,000 merchants. The implementation of Quick Chip ensures that merchants are covered for the EMV liability shift, and the solutions certified by these VAR partners provide merchants with the ability to support contactless payments as well.

 

continue reading »