The Discover Financial Services payment network has joined EMVCo, the EMV standards body, and will work alongside EMVCo's existing members to manage and evolve the contact and contactless EMV industry specifications to facilitate worldwide interoperability and acceptance of secure chip payment instruments, according to a news release.

Discover joins current EMVCo member-owners American Express, JCB, MasterCard, UnionPay and Visa as a one-sixth shareholder, the release said, and will actively contribute to the management, technical work and operations of EMVCo.

"Discover becoming an equity member of EMVCo further underlines the importance of the EMV standard for the global payments industry," Dave Meadon, current EMVCo executive committee chair, said in the release. "The existing members of EMVCo value the additional resources and contributions that new members provide as we address the broad and diverse needs of the international payments community. As an established end-user of the EMV specifications, we welcome the industry knowledge and extensive chip card experience that Discover will bring to EMVCo's work program."

Discover said a key area of interest is the rapid growth and expansion of new payment methods and how they are supported by EMVCo.

"Discover is committed to achieving a global, ubiquitous payments landscape that is based on universally defined industry specifications and standards," Beth Horowitz, senior vice president, Discover Network, said in the release. "This is particularly important as innovative transaction solutions are introduced such as contactless and mobile chip-based payments. We look forward to adding our expertise to these discussions and contributing to the global specification development efforts of EMVCo."

Discover is the second new member to join EMVCo in 2013. In May, the standards body announced that UnionPay had become its fifth owner-member.

"EMVCo is keen to engage with the payments community to ensure the continued evolution of its standards as the payments industry advances, rapidly offering new and exciting innovations," Christina Hulka, current chair of the EMVCo board of managers, said in the release.

"As part of this drive, EMVCo has established an associates program, which encourages all payment stakeholders — including payment card issuers, acquirers, merchants, processors, card and terminal vendors, networks and their representative associations — to provide input into the advancement of existing and new EMV specifications. We advise all interested parties to get involved in this program, join our technical discussions and shape the future of their payments landscape."

EMVCo's primary role is to manage, maintain and enhance the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications to ensure interoperability and acceptance of payment system integrated circuit cards on a worldwide basis, the release said. EMVCo also maintains type approval processes for terminal compliance testing and Common Core Definitions and Common Payment Application card compliance testing. These testing processes ensure that a single terminal and card approval process is developed at a level that will allow cross payment-system interoperability through compliance with the EMV specifications, according to the release.

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