EMVCo, the EMV standards body owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa, has signed an agreement with the NFC Forum to improve the development and testing process of NFC-enabled mobile devices.

Under the partnership, the two organizations will synchronize their specifications, test plans, test tools, laboratory accreditations and the management of contactless product certifications. According to EMVCo, this will reduce product time-to-market and decrease certification costs for EMV-related NFC products in the contactless payments industry.

The organizations’ activity will focus on Level 1 functionality, which covers contactless communication protocol. Initial efforts will center on outlining the scope of work and the specifications to be covered, followed by a gap analysis to identify and examine specification differences, agree on specification updates and determine how agreed amendments will be collectively managed.

“To enable contactless to reach its full potential and facilitate the delivery of secure payment solutions, we need to create an efficient testing and certification framework that allows products to be swiftly brought to market,” said Joe Cunningham, Chair of the EMVCo Executive Committee. “Alignment between industry bodies is therefore essential to ensure we apply specialist knowledge and a cohesive approach to the creation of this very innovative ecosystem.”

“We want to make it fast and affordable for organizations to build and deploy EMV-based NFC solutions,” added Koichi Tagawa, NFC Forum Chairman. “By working closely with EMVCo, we’re able to better support vendors while furthering our commitment to global interoperability.”