Highlights:

  • The U.S. Payments Forum has released various new resources focusing on enhancing the contactless payment experience at the point of sale (POS).
  • This Forum is affiliated with the Secure Technology Alliance.
  • To reduce fraud for e-commerce transactions, the “Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud Mitigation Techniques” whitepaper was published.
  • “Best Practices – Customer Messaging for Transit Open Payments” whitepaper was published in favor of using contactless open payments in their respective markets.

Best practices for contactless payment

In response to COVID-19, the payments landscape and consumer expectations have significantly evolved to meet the novel payment technology demand. The U.S. Payments Forum has released various new resources that are continuously focusing on enhancing the contactless payment experience at the point of sale (POS), boosting the adoption of contactless open payments in transit, and securing online channels against payment fraud.

These resources are a slice of the Forum’s constant efforts to offer actionable guidance and education periodically for the payments industry.

The Forum is a cross-industry body that focuses on addressing issues requiring broad cooperation and coordination across several payments industry constituents. This Forum is affiliated with the Secure Technology Alliance.

Randy Vanderhoof, Executive Director, Secure Technology Alliance and Director, U.S. Payments Forum, commented: “There has been an incredible amount of change in the payments space this year in response to COVID-19, and the U.S. Payments Forum responded by prioritizing the emerging needs of the industry.” Further, he added, “The new resources are a result of these efforts and address implementation considerations for cardholder experience and fraud mitigation that are industry priorities.”

Safeguarding online payment networks against fraud

To reduce fraud in the e-commerce transactions, the “Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud Mitigation Techniques” whitepaper was designed by the Forum’s CNP Fraud Working Committee for payment service providers (PSP), issuer processors, and merchant processors and acquirers.

The paper highlights the presently available techniques to reduce fraud along with attributes and considerations for each method. Also, this whitepaper is exclusively used in assessing which solutions are most beneficial for their use case.

Mitigation techniques deliberated in the whitepaper are:

  • Multifactor authentication
  • Fraud scoring
  • Transaction alerts
  • Address verification

Enhancing the contactless consumer experience at the POS

As vendors allow contactless payments at the POS, they must configure specific limits used in contactless transactions. These limits could be based on the cardholder verification method or the transaction value.

Application of limits might lead to changing consumer experiences and cause confusion. Therefore, the Forum published a whitepaper, “Contactless Limits and EMV Transaction Processing,” to offer guidance to issuers, vendors, and acquirers on how contactless limits are used during EMV contactless transaction processing in the US.

This resource covers the implementation requirements for individual payment networks, contactless limits, and differences among contactless consumer devices.

Implementation of best practices

Accelerating adoption of transit open payments depends on clear and consistent communication about contactless bank card acceptance, whether physical or virtual, at enabled points of entry. The Forum’s Transit Contactless Open Payment Working Committee developed “Best Practices – Customer Messaging for Transit Open Payments” to support transit agencies and promote the use of contactless open payments in their respective markets.

The resource offers communication practices by implementing media and phase channels and other relevant instances of present communications from transit agencies, mobile wallet providers, and payment networks.

The U.S. Payments Forum has issued a vast range of resources to offer education and implementation of best practices for contactless payments and other novel emerging payment technologies in the US.