EMV Status Update: December

In the world of Point of Sale the big news that has been floating around for most of the year is the national transition to the new EMV cards. We have received many questions about how this is rolling out to the National Parks so we want to give you this update.

First of all, the October 1st Deadline, that has already passed, was for Stand-Alone Credit Card systems only. None of the registers that we have installed in the Parks meet this specification. We do not need to be concerned about that date. We still have plenty of time.

The reason we have not yet been able to install EMV systems into any of the Parks is due to certifications that the credit card companies are currently working through. Because of the sensitive nature of credit card information, these companies need to go through extensive trials and testing to insure the security of their credit card processors. This is taking longer than expected but they assure us they are making progress.

As soon as we get the all clear, we will immediately install the EMV systems at a park that is nearby to our office. Having a lot of experience with new systems, we know that there are usually some bugs that need to be worked out even after going live. We want these issues to happen somewhere we can get to quickly so that we can monitor and fix everything possible before we implement this into every Park we service. Once we are comfortable with the performance in our Pilot Park, we will begin to roll it out to everyone else.

When we do install these systems at the Parks there will be some costs attached to it. Treasury is providing some of the equipment, but not everything. If your Park is not set up with the newer EliXR registers, they will need to be replaced. The software on your older registers is unable to handle the new system requirements for EMV. There are also a few other components that are needed. Please see the diagrams below for more detail.

Although the concept of EMV is simple, the process of actually switching to it is very difficult. We are doing our best to update all of our clients as quickly and smoothly as possible and we are excited to work on this with all of you.