ADA compliance picks up pace

I have spoken before about the implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on the ATM but as with any regulatory deadline there is always a certain degree of reluctance; a hope that if you ignore it for long enough it might just go away. The problem is, that rarely happens and in fact leaving it to the last minute just makes the compliance process harder and more pressured than it needs to be.

ADA is no different. The Department of Justice has been vague in some respects and there are certain challenges posed by the finer details of the regulation. However, the reality of the situation is that the 15th March 2012 deadline is now less than six months away.

Those who attended our webinar recently will know that as far as the voice guidance aspect is concerned, we are now able to offer automated testing of this as a natural extension of the BRIDGE:test environment, to greatly ease the laborious process of manual voice guidance testing and to help ensure that ATMs meet the requirements.

The issue of testing voice guidance flows in ATM applications is getting much more prominence now, especially in the US. I read a piece by Jason Kuhn of Payment Alliance International recently, which I felt articulated the need for action in this area particularly very well. He said, “If you don’t have voice guidance you are in a world of hurt. Voice guidance is an absolute requirement.”

Couldn’t have put it any better myself.

Ian Kerr

Watch our webinar on our prototype for ADA compliance testing

Visa puts its weight behind US EMV

Last week, Visa announced that it is kicking off three new initiatives to accelerate the adoption of EMV and NFC technology in the US. Visa is the largest card scheme in the US, putting it in a strong position to finally bring about EMV migration in one of the last Western countries to still be relying on magstripe cards.

This is welcome news to security-conscious US consumers and also to the payment card industry as a whole – on this forum I have long blogged about the benefits of EMV. Recent discussions have pointed to a ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ attitude to EMV migration in the US and it appears we are closer now to the tipping point when the initiative will start.

Interestingly, however, Visa has chosen to focus on the NFC mobile payment capability that a migration to chip cards will enable. While the rest of the world migrated to EMV in a move that is largely driven by security, Visa’s new announcement indicates that the rise in mobile payments is the catalyst that has finally driven it to get behind the initiative in the US.

Regardless of its motivations, there is still a great deal of work to be done to ensure that all payment channels are ready to support EMV. We created a best practice guide to EMV migration, following our support of many global projects to prepare the ATM channel for EMV. Our strongest advice is that with any change, there is a need to fully test the new environment end to end.

There are significantly more types of card conditions and transaction permutations with EMV cards, rather than with magnetic stripe cards, which require the ATM application and host system to process a much wider range of scenarios.

As a result, EMV compliant ATMs are about ten times more labour intensive to test than traditional ATMs. To ensure that the ATM continues to deliver a high level of customer service and satisfaction during this time of EMV migration in the US, financial institutions must consider their ATM testing strategies.

Ian Kerr

Global counterfeit card ring is foiled by Europol and US law enforcement agencies

Finextra has reported yet another story highlighting the increasing perception of financial criminals that the US is a weak link in the financial chain.

Last week, Europol and the US collaborated to make arrests in Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Poland and Italy. Police rounded up more than 60 individuals who were involved in an international card skimming enterprise.

The group skimmed cards in the EU and then used them in countries that are not EMV compliant, including the US, to circumvent the additional layer of security that Chip and PIN affords. According to the article, the arrests also identify wider links to criminal cells in Kenya, South Africa and the USA.

This is a commonly-used tactic by card fraud rings and highlights that the US market is still open to a significant vulnerability. I have written a lot about the benefits of EMV migration and I also recently participated in an ATMIA webinar on the topic.

Clearly, the cost of EMV implementation is not small for the US, but the fact remains that card fraud is increasingly being squeezed to those areas that are easiest to target and the US is a prime target, not least because of the Mexico/Canada sandwich of compliance that now exists.
According to Digital Transactions, a report out this week from the first FI in the US to migrate to EMV, the United Nations Federal Credit Union, says it has experienced a 153% increase in card applications in the first year of EMV.

With the cost of fraud to the business increasing, so too does the reputation damage that security issues bring. Add to this the growing business case from organisations such as the United Nations Federal Credit Union, and also those banks in countries such as Canada and the UK, and we are surely closer than ever to widespread EMV migration in the US?

Ian Kerr

Testing voice guidance capability to comply with ADA is about to get a whole lot easier

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a final ruling on new accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which need to be adhered to by March 15th 2012. The Final Rule imposes new standards around ATM accessibility, including requirements on voice guidance, height and reach, layout and touch of keypad, screen visibility and Braille instructions.

To meet the 2012 deadline, updates to ATM terminals and software are likely to be required as part of the overall compliance plan. As with any change to ATM functionality, it’s important to remember the ‘change anything, test everything’ rule.

At the moment, testing voice guidance functionality on an ATM is a laborious process. It involves someone physically sitting at the machine with headphones on and testing that every single voice command matches the screen display. Because this is such a time intensive and manual process, it’s something which, up until now, banks have probably not put as much focus on as they should. But, as voice guidance becomes a requirement and all U.S. machines carry the functionality, testing needs to be carried out as part of the process, just as is the case with any update.

Left un-tested, errors and glitches are more likely to occur further down the line and these are not only costly to repair but when a customer encounters the error or an out of service ATM they have implications on the reputation of the bank or ATM owner in question.

I was recently in the US meeting with customers, prospects and partners and told them about some exciting developments in terms of a voice guidance testing capability being added to Level Four’s Regression Test Manager. These are currently in R&D stage, but will make the job of complying with this final ruling on ADA a whole lot simpler.

Ian Kerr

Happy Birthday to the ATM!

On this day in 1967, the world’s first electronic ATM was installed by Barclays Bank in Enfield, North London.

A lot has happened in the last 44 years in the ATM world – from improvements in speed and efficiency, through to finger vein and biometric security and new functionalities such as mobile phone top up, bill payment and now charitable donations. But what will the ATM look like in another 44 years?

We’re already seeing forward thinking banks and ATM deployers considering greater integration with other banking channels, such as online and mobile, so we can definitely expect further developments in this area. A far more personal and bespoke service at the ATM is also something we’ll become increasingly used to. And perhaps as the e-money society evolves, the machines will become a one-stop shop for all banking needs and serve as the access point for a much wider range of non-banking, self-service functions too.

Here’s to the next 44 years!

Ian Kerr