TNS, ID TECH Partnership Simplifies Path To EMV

With the EMV liability-shift deadline steadily approaching — and almost half of merchants still not even started on their point-of-sale (POS) changeover — payments service provider Transaction Network Services (TNS) has cut a deal with POS device vendor ID TECH to simplify the process of getting both card readers and small merchants certified for the change.

Under the partnership, TNS will provide access to its network of banks, acquirers and processors — more than 400 in all — while ID TECH will offer devices that support EMV chip and contactless cards and NFC-based mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, so merchants don’t have to navigate the complexities of certification.

TNS will also deliver managed services for network monitoring, SIM management, and deployment. “TNS is unique in the market place,” said Lisa Shipley, TNS executive VP and managing director of Payment Network Solutions, in a prepared statement. “We provide a single point of entry into the majority of all the acquirers, VARs, card schemes, etc. across the globe. Our current customers leverage this capability and eliminate the multiple connections into their data centers by connecting once to TNS. New entrants, including hardware manufacturers, can certify once to TNS and have the benefit of the 400-plus connections we maintain across the globe.”

Merchant customers can also use TNS as a one-stop shop for their payments needs to simplify their payments and avoid the problems of complicated homegrown payments networks, she added.

Simplifying and speeding up the transition to EMV is looking like it will be increasingly important, especially for smaller merchants. Almost 40 percent of small merchants still hadn’t decided when or whether to upgrade to EMV-capable POS devices with less than a year to go before the October liability shift, American Express said in February. After Oct. 1, merchants who can’t process EMV chip transactions will face liability for any card fraud they encounter.

The ID TECH-TNS partnership should let customers make the transition quickly and painlessly, said ID TECH CEO Stanley Ning. “The combination of ID TECH’s hardware and TNS managed services will provide these customers with a seamless EMV transition,” Ning added. “This strategic cooperation with TNS will allow us to significantly shorten the time frame required for our customers to adapt their individual payment systems to accommodate the changes related to the shift to EMV.”