Tag Archives: contactless

Sunset of Expresspay 3.1

Since the release of the updated American Express contactless kernel v4.0.2, terminal providers had the possibility to certify their product against either version.

Count down has now started for payment solution providers to comply with Expresspay 4.0.2. No new certification will be allowed with the 3.1 version as of February 10th 2020.

Stay in touch for relevant information on certification updates and feel free to contact your Alcinéo representative for support with your smart payment project : info@alcineo.com

Update to Discover’s contactless specification

Discover Financial Services have released new bulletins last summer – TAS 003 & TAS 004, to update their contactless specification.

New functional test cases related to these bulletins are integrated into the test plan v1.2, and will be applicable as of April 15^th 2020.

The updates are related to Online PIN, transit transaction types and tokenization.

Payment terminal providers must implement the two bulletins mentioned above and should operate a pre-testing campaign accordingly, before submitting their product to DPAS contactless Terminal Type Approval. For more information, visit Discover website,

To stay informed of current specifications or test plan versions requested during Terminal Type Approvals feel free to contact us at : info@alcineo.com.

Activation of JCB 1.4 contactless

The activation of JCB 1.4 contactless Type Approval is effective since end of September 2019.
Terminal providers shall now submit their products to JCB contactless v1.4 certification process, using the related documentation : TA test program requirements 1.5 and JCB 1.4 Implementation Conformance Statement.
The sunset for accepting Type Approval requests for JCB v1.3 based terminal is end of March 2020, and end of March 2022 for renewal TA requests.
Contact your Alcinéo representative to obtain further information on JCB implementation and type approval process : info@alcineo.com

Keep in touch with us and stay tuned with global payment industry updates.

Mastercard LoA validity

Mastercard has decided to extend the LoA validity for MCL approved products, to align with the validity period granted to contactless terminals certified with EMV® contactless Level 1 3.0 specification.

Products submitted to Mastercard contactless approval, with a Contactless Level 1 compliant with the 3.0 specification will now obtain a LoA with 4 years validity period.

Interac Flash v1.6

Interac Flash v1.6 for all contactless terminals

A few months ago, Interac had released a specification update for the certification of payment terminals applicable in the transit sector only.

Interac has published earlier this month the relevant documentation such as ICS or product registration form in v1.6.

From now on, all type of contactless capable terminals submitted to type approval with Interac Flash shall integrate the IF Level 2 kernel version 1.6.

Feel free to contact us for further information at : info@alcineo.com.

EMV® contactless specifications update v2.8

EMVCo has released an update of the contactless specifications. Book A (Architecture and general requirements), Book B (Entry point), and all Books C (contactless kernels) have been updated to version 2.8, and are available on EMVCo website.

The changes are related to Request Online PIN and pre-processing to enable zero value transaction (check Book A and Entry Point).

Feel free to contact your Alcinéo representive for more information.

EMV® is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries and an unregistered trademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC.

New ICS for EMV® Contactless Level 1 available

The applicability of EMV® 3.0 is now effective, and the corresponding ICS for EMV® Contactless Level 1 v3.0 is available for download on EMVCo website.

Vendors can submit their contactless capable terminals to type approval against the v3.0 test plan. The scope of the EMV Contactless Level 1 testing includes Analogue test, Digital test, and Interoperability test. The aim is to adapt POS systems to new methods of payment used worldwide.

As the version 3.0 includes major changes on the Analogue side, EMVCo has stretched the migration period until December 2019. Hence, if products don’t pass all Analogue v3.0 tests, they can be granted a v2.6 LoA, provided :

they pass all v3.0 Digital test cases
they pass certain v3.0 Analogue test cases (detailed description in TTA bulletin 221).

Contact your Alcinéo representative to have further information on the Terminal certification processes at : info@alcineo.com.

EMV® is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries and an unregistered trademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC.

Comply with EMV® contactless Level 1 interoperability testing

Since January 1st 2019, vendors submitting their contactless readers to Terminal Type Approval, shall perform interoperability tests in addition to analog and digital testing sessions to obtain EMV Contactless Level 1 certification.

Vendors who have already obtained certification of EMV L1 contactless kernel v2.5 or 2.6 (with a LoA still valid), can perform the Interoperability tests, and will get an update on the current LoA.

Vendors submitting their products to Interoperability testing shall also provide a DTE to the lab with the Interoperability loopback application.

Visit EMVCo website to obtain the related documentation.

The dedicated tool developed by Alcinéo to provide a bespoke and flexible device testing environment to our customers during Terminal Type Approval testing sessions (DTE L1) already supports the loopback application. The changes linked to interoperability tests (eg. error or success indicators with sounds or LED) have been integrated.

For more information feel free to contact us : info@alcineo.com .

EMVCo Bulletin 205 – operational issues

Terminal Type Approval bulletin 205, 3rd edition is available on EMVCo website. It describes operational issues raised by POS manufacturers or laboratories on Level 2 contact test cases version 4.3g or contactless test plan version 2.6b.

The document describes the nature of each issue and the resolution for laboratories and POS providers to mitigate the impact of these tests on TA results.

For more information on EMV and payment schemes’ updates, do not hesitate to contact your Alcinéo representative at : info@alcineo.com.

JCB updates its requirements program for approval processes

The Japan-based payment scheme JCB has issued an update of its requirement program for Contactless IC terminal approval tests. The new version of the document has been released on the 1st of August.

It describes the submission processes for initial and renewal approval of compliant EMV payment terminal with JCB specifications. The main changes in the document are related to clarifications on the renewal process.

Renewal testing requirements

The purpose of renewal testing is to demonstrate that the contactless kernel inside an approved payment terminal still meets sufficient conformance with the current specifications.

JCB reviews the ICS of the embedded kernel and decides if renewal testing process is needed. If it considers that the product shows sufficient compliance then an extension of approval is granted for 3 years. Otherwise the device must undergo a series of tests to prove compliance with the current test plans.

The renewal testing session shall be scheduled at the same laboratory that performed initial testing of the product. The set of renewal tests is performed using the same sample device as initial type approval, provided that the device stored at the laboratory is still functional.

Terminal providers shall send the renewal request within 6 months prior to the end of the approval validity period, and shall ensure that the device has at least a valid EMV Contactless L1 LoA (if it is contactless only capable).

How to ensure the renewal of terminal approval

It is crucial for POS providers to perform internally the appropriate testing campaigns prior to submitting the device to renewal process.

Alcinéo has all the the tools identical to those used in laboratories, in order to perform the required testing campaigns in-house for our customers. Either for initial TTA or renewal testing, our team of highly-qualified ISTQB testers can perform tests cases related to EMV contact and contactless kernels, and the full suite of contactless kernels (including but not limited to : MCL, PayWave, ExpressPay, DPAS, Interac, JCB, CUP).