Working Committees

The U.S. Payments Forum has six working committees and two special interest groups focused on different topics relevant to EMV migration and emerging payments technologies. The working committee topics and activities are chosen by Forum members based on critical issues discussed in the Forum meetings. Forum members can join any working committee and lead or participate in committee projects. Projects are defined by the committee members to focus on the critical issues or challenges that impact the U.S. payments industry migration to EMV or implementation of new payments technologies.  Working committees meet at U.S. Payments Forum in-person meetings and in regular teleconferences.

ATM Working Committee.  The ATM Working Committee goal is to explore the challenges of EMV migration for the U.S. ATM industry, work to identify possible solutions to challenges, and facilitate the sharing of best practices with the various industry constituents, with the goal result being more positive EMV migration experience for consumers.  The Working Committee will serve to provide input, solutions, and expertise that are specific to the needs of the ATM channel to other U.S. Payments Forum working committees.

Card-Not-Present Fraud Working Committee. The Card-Not-Present Fraud Working Committee goal is to create a comprehensive best practices strategy to mitigate card-not-present fraud, using a balanced approach considering all key stakeholders – issuers, consumers, merchants, acquirers, networks and third parties. Working Committee projects include benchmarking potential tools used to address fraud, monitoring fraud levels and collaborating with other organizations to understand fraud costs, and providing best practices for online fraud management.

Communication and Education Working Committee.  The Communication and Education Working Committee goal is to deliver communications best practices and educational resources for key payments industry stakeholders that promotes an efficient, timely and effective migration to EMV-enabled cards, devices and terminals and emerging payments technologies in the United States.

Mobile and Contactless Payments Working Committee.  The goal of the Mobile and Contactless Payments Working Committee is for all interested parties to work collaboratively to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with implementation of mobile and contactless payments in the U.S. market, identify possible solutions to challenges, and facilitate the sharing of best practices with all industry stakeholders.

Petroleum Working Committee. The Petroleum Working Committee is for all interested parties to work collaboratively to identify, review and resolve challenges associated with implementation of EMV within the U.S. petroleum and convenience market.  The Petroleum Working Committee includes payment networks, petroleum and convenience merchants, petroleum-specific acquirers, petroleum and convenience POS vendors and fuel dispenser manufacturers, and other organizations servicing the petroleum and convenience category.  The initial focus of the Working Committee is looking at how to streamline EMV testing and certification for the petroleum industry.

Testing and Certification Working Committee.  The Testing and Certification Working Committee goal is to discuss the challenges with EMV certification and define approaches for achieving certification to meet the payment network milestones for fraud liability shift. Areas for focus include: education on the testing and certification that is required for different industry stakeholders; evaluation of current processes to define approaches for streamlining testing and certification.

Special Interest Groups

The U.S. Payments Forum has two special interest groups (SIGs), one for merchants and one for issuers.  SIGs meet at Forum in-person meetings to discuss topics relevant to SIG participants.

Birds of a Feather Sessions

In addition to SIG meetings, “birds of a feather” sessions are also held at Forum meetings to discuss topics specific to a technology or an industry stakeholder group. Past sessions have covered topics relevant to: hospitality merchants; grocery merchants; independent software vendors (ISVs)/value-added resellers (VARS); mobile payments; tokenization.

If you have questions or would like information about the Working Committees or Special Interest Groups, please contact Cathy Medich at [email protected].