MAG Releases Payments Roadmap January 11, 2012 The Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) is pleased to announce its recommendations for a U.S. electronic payments roadmap. CLICK HERE to view the MAG Payments Roadmap. Fed MPIW releases white paper on mobile April 7, 2011 In March 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank’s Mobile Payments Industry Workgroup (MPIW) issued a white paper titled "Mobile Payments in the United States: Mapping Out the Road Ahead." MAG was the only merchant–focused organization that participated in developing this treatise. Part of the executive summary was hotly debated: "During their discussions, the MPIW debated the need for a new entity in the ecosystem directed at assisting the various parties to resolve issues of mutual concern and codify solutions in such a way as to facilitate interoperability and ubiquity. While many members felt that such an entity may be useful in the future, the general sense was that it was too early in the evolution to fully understand how such an entity might be constituted and what its role might be …" Click here to review the entire document. NACHA's Internet Council Includes MAG President March 30, 2011 MAG President/CEO Dodd Roberts participated on a panel that discussed the mobile contactless transformation opportunity at NACHA’s Internet Council meeting on February 23, 2011, in Denver. He was joined by representatives from the Federal Reserve, Citibank, and Discover. For more information about the Internet Council, visit internetcouncil.nacha.org. MAG President Presents at 2011 SCA Payments Summit February 18, 2011 The week after the MAG held its 2010 Mid-Year Conference, MAG President/CEO Dodd Roberts spoke on a panel at the Smart Card Alliance's 2011 Mobile and Transit Payments Summit in Salt Lake City. The event provided a forum to promote the idea of stakeholder collaboration on the deployment of future payments products and technology. The MAG shared the podium with representatives from the Federal Reserve and CTIA to discuss merchant views on mobile payments. Click here to view slides from the presentation. Merchant Advisory Group Releases Recommendations for Move to Mobile Payments November 29, 2010 The Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) released a high-level set of policy and technology recommendations to help drive the agenda for the rapidly evolving U.S. payment system. This "Mobile Road-map" will be submitted to stakeholder groups in the payments business to help them understand merchant needs and preferences in transitioning to more secure and efficient transacting—especially with mobile devices. "It’s been widely recognized that leadership is needed to help this country migrate to a better payment system," said Dodd Roberts, MAG’s president and chief executive officer. "We hope and intend that this document will help other stakeholders in the payments ecosystem understand the merchant position, and will accelerate progress in specifying and justifying the emerging new payments infrastructure." Mobile offers not only a safer and more convenient means for conducting POS transactions, but also greatly enhances the buyer-seller interaction and level of gratification through such capabilities of two-way near-field-communications (NFC) radio waves that transmit information, payments, coupons, advertising, and promotions on a one-to-one basis. "We have been working and will continue to work with all mobile transacting stakeholder groups to build a foundation of common interests that will foster a much more collaborative environment than we’ve had in the past," said Roberts. "We anticipate and hope that the Federal Reserve Bank will continue to support similar efforts, and will benefit from knowing explicitly what the seller side of mobile transacting will need in the future." The recommendations propose that investments be channeled to the configuration anticipated to be the preferred payments embodiment in the future—incorporation of "smart card" types of computer chips conveying secure account credentials by contactless transmission to a new generation of POS terminals equipped to identify those devices and securely enter PINs as well. The recommendation endorses a national move to EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa), the global standard for contact cards offering this chip & PIN capability. EMV chip & PIN has caught on worldwide, outside the U.S., and EMV specifications for a globally interoperable contactless version are expected to be approved by the end of 2010. "We expect contactless to be the prevalent mode by which the world transacts in five years," Roberts added. "While we acknowledge a need to deploy EMV contact card readers to some extent in this country, contactless solves a number of problems that contact cards have, so we plan to channel as much of our investment and deployment efforts to where this country ought to be moving five years from now. And that’s EMV/NFC chip & PIN." Significant contributions to this paper were made by Steve Mott with BetterBuyDesign. Click here to read the position paper. MAG joins SRPc Board March 18, 2010 MAG President/CEO Dodd Roberts has been invited to sit on the Board of Directors for the Secure Remote Payment Council. SRPc is dedicated to the growth, development and market adoption of debit based internet eCommerce, emerging eCommerce payment types, and mobile channel payment methods that meet or exceed the security standards for pinned based card present payments. The Council accomplishes this by encouraging and supporting those activities that accelerate the implementation, adoption and promotion of these payments. SRPc’s Executive Director, Paul Tomasofsky, presented an overview of the organization during the MAG’s 2010 Mid-Year Conference in Irving, TX, on February 18. His presentation can be found in the Members Resource area. To learn more about the SRPc, go to secureremotepaymentcouncil.org. MAG President Participates in Two Panels at SCA’s 2010 Payments Summit March 18, 2010 The week after the MAG held its 2010 Mid-Year Conference, MAG President/CEO Dodd Roberts was invited to speak on two panels at the Payments Summit, which the Smart Card Alliance hosted in Salt Lake City. The event provided a forum to promote the idea of stakeholder collaboration on the deployment of future payments products and technology. Since the meeting, the MAG has been quoted in multiple industry articles on this topic. "EMV and Transit Chip Payment Gaining Momentum in U.S." was published in the Boston Globe, on TMC.net, and in Scottrade’s online newsletter, among others. The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology. The Alliance invests heavily in education on the appropriate uses of technology for identification, payment and other applications and strongly advocates the use of smart card technology in a way that protects privacy and enhances data security and integrity. Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart card technology, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. To find out more about the Smart Card Alliance, visit their website at www.smartcardalliance.org. MAG Participates in Cardholder Data Protection Session May 13, 2009 MAG Merchants and the MAG President attended a brainstorming session held in Dallas concerning the early stages of development of a new data security standard. The Accredited Standards Committee X9 (ASC X9), accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is embarking on the development of a new standard to protect cardholder data in the electronic payments industry. In advance of formally launching this "Sensitive Card Data Protection Between Device and Acquiring System" initiative, Heartland Payment Systems hosted a preliminary planning workshop where data security experts and industry leaders brainstormed technical approaches to protecting this data. Ideas generated at this meeting will be presented at the next ASC X9 meeting to be held June 1-5, 2009, in Foster City, CA. MAG and SCA Hold Joint Session on Mobile Payments May 5, 2009 The MAG and the Smart Card Alliance participated in a noteworthy session on mobile payments at the 2009 Smart Card Alliance Annual Conference in New Orleans. The meeting provided a rare opportunity for merchants to openly discuss the future of payments with industry leaders from card issuers, processors and technology providers. The session presented a unique opportunity for merchants and providers to exchange ideas, concerns and opportunities with each other in an open environment. It is rare for merchants and providers to participate in this kind of forum together. The dialog was informative and highly beneficial to the attendees. Topics discussed included future technology, deployment incentives, barriers to utilization and ideas for optimization. A follow up session is planned for the MAG Annual Conference in October. MAG President Speaks at 2009 Smart Card Alliance Summit February 25, 2009 MAG President Dodd Roberts spoke at the 2009 Smart Card Alliance Payments Councils Summit in Salt Lake City. The Summit was attended by numerous industry leaders to discuss recent developments and the future outlook for contactless and mobile payments technology. Roberts spoke to the group about merchants’ attitudes and opinions about the current and future state of mobile payments. To find out more about the Smart Card Alliance, visit their website at www.smartcardalliance.org. MAG Joins X9 Board of Directors January 1, 2009 To ensure that the merchant voice is heard as the industry’s technical standards are developed, the MAG has joined the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X9 Board of Directors. ASC X9’s mission is to develop and manage voluntary, consensus-based technical standards certified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ASC X9 subcommittees are currently developing payment and data security standards. Through our relationship with ASC, the MAG’s Merchant Members will now be directly involved in producing these standards. For more information, go to the ASC X9 web site.