RFI accredited by EMVCo for the type approval of contactless payment terminals

RFI Global Services Ltd has been accredited by EMVCo for the Level 1 Type Approval of Contactless payment terminals.

RFI’s believes its accreditation will be good news for manufacturers of smart card readers and terminals as it means there are now two major suppliers of this service. The demand for EMVCo approval of Contactless Terminals is set to increase significantly 2009, driven by the increasing need for contactless infrastructure.

The requirement for Contactless infrastructure is likely to increase further with the arrival of Mobile Payments (e.g. the GSMA Pay Buy Mobile initiative), which brings credit card functions into the mobile phone.

RFI is accredited to V2.0 of the EMVCo Contactless Communication Protocol Specification and is also able to perform debug and quality assurance testing. These services complement RFI’s existing services for contactless readers and terminal vendors which include:

• Visa Contactless Payment Specification Application (qVSDC/MSD) Type Approval
• EMVCo Contact Terminal Level 1 and Level 2 Type Approval
• PCI PED Terminal Security Evaluation Regulatory approvals to national and regional requirements (including FCC approvals and CE marking)

This accreditation is an important milestone for RFI, as it means that RFI is now unique in offering the complete range of services needed to bring smart card Contact and Contactless readers and terminals to market. This allows RFI to help its customers by:

• Simplifying the process (as RFI customers have to deal with fewer suppliers).
• Reducing time to market (by managing and optimizing the overall approvals processes – including EMVCo, Visa, PCI and Regulatory approvals).
• Reducing costs (as this enable RFI to offer attractive comprehensive services package).

Jean-Luc Khaou, RFI’s General Manager for Smart Card services, commented: “This is a major milestone in the development of RFI’s Smart Card services, especially as Contactless payment continues to grow in importance around the globe. We are very excited about being able to bring competition to this area of the approvals business and we believe that RFI’s knowledge and experience will allow us to make a significant impact on this part of the industry.”