Emvelink Adds Multinational Support

Friday, December 29, 2006

Smart Technology Solutions has strengthened its software offering through the release of the new version of its world's leading EMV Level 2 software, Emvelink.

The benefits of the market-leading advancements in the STS software include:

Support for multiple-language selection at the Point of Sale
Support for online PIN functionality as required by countries such as Spain and Portugal
Updates for all new EMVCo specifications and bulletins
STS has continued its proud history of obtaining EMVCo approval at the first attempt and now, with this latest release, has 29 EMVCo EMV Level 2 software approvals.

The new functionality offered by the STS software enables EFT vendors a consistent interface with support for multiple markets and multiple devices, as well as ensuring compliance with the latest updates from EMVCo. This allows EFT vendors to offer their multinational customers products in different geographies.

This addition from STS is particularly important given the move in Europe towards SEPA [Single European Payments Area rules]. SEPA is going to change the structure of all transactions and the payments business is going to become more competitive. It opens up multiple markets to new and overseas players including into established areas such as the UK. SEPA will create problems for some parties, but STS sees it as a business opportunity. We can provide a single interface that adapts to all the different country requirements, so we can support individual markets.

Many countries outside of the UK will require the support of Online PIN. This involves the PIN pad creating an enciphered PIN block and sending this back to the card issuer for validation.

In addition to this PIN variation, some countries also require the ability for their users to select their language on the PIN pad or allow the card to dictate the language in use. This is extremely important in dual language countries such as Canada (supporting French and English) and Estonia (supporting Estonian and Russian).

“We're delighted with the latest release of SmartNS with Emvelink as it will provide our existing EFT vendors with a significant advantage over their competitors”, comments VP, Business Development, Cameron Olsen. “It will allow them to offer their multinational customers the additional functionality needed for different markets, particularly important as new markets move to EMV. This release is a credit to the incredible hard work of our development team and we also offer a big thanks to VeriFone for their invaluable support in providing updated firmware for their hardware devices for this project”.