MasterCard has struck an agreement with Discover Financial Services unit PULSE that will allow financial institutions to use MasterCard’s common debit solution on the EMV debit cards eligible for both the MasterCard and PULSE networks.
The agreement aimed at furthering EMV installation for the mutual debit card issuers, merchants and acquirers of MasterCard and PULSE, is in line with US debit regulations, which urges debit card providers to offer multiple and unaffiliated networks to carry out debit transactions.
Debit EMV cards use common application identifiers (AIDs) to cater to the requirements of the regulation, and by licensing MasterCard’s common debit AID, EMV chip adoption would be supported in the US by enabling issuers to deploy EMV cards.
MasterCard US Product Delivery group head Carolyn Balfany said that the agreement is another key step in moving the industry to EMV adoption.
"Working together with PULSE, we are providing secure payment solutions for debit programs that deliver maximum value to merchants, consumers and issuers," added Balfany.
Following this agreement, PULSE will employ MasterCard’s common AID to process domestic ATM and POS transactions on behalf of issuers of both PULSE and MasterCard network.
PULSE Product Management executive vice president Judith McGuire said: "With this agreement, PULSE can now provide card issuers access to full EMV capabilities, regardless of debit card brand. In addition, merchants and acquirers on the PULSE network can develop their systems to support all debit routing options available through PULSE, including PIN, signature and PINless transactions."
