EMVNormen

EMVNormen refers to a family of technical standards for chip-based payment cards and the terminals that accept them, maintained by EMVCo. The term is widely used in German-speaking contexts to denote the global EMV specifications developed by Europay, MasterCard and Visa. The goal of the EMVNormen is to ensure interoperability, security and reliability of card-present payments across different countries, card issuers and payment networks.

Historically, EMVNormen emerged from a collaboration among Europay, Mastercard and Visa in the 1990s to replace magnetic-stripe cards with more secure chip-based payment. After years of development and pilot programs, widespread adoption began in the mid-2000s and accelerated through the 2010s, driven by fraud reduction goals and regulatory initiatives in many markets. Today EMVCo maintains and updates the standards to reflect new technologies, such as contactless payments and mobilewallet integrations.

The core of the EMVNormen covers several technical areas. They define data authentication methods for chip cards, including offline and online mechanisms, and specify how dynamic data and cryptograms protect transactions against cloning. They also describe cardholder verification methods, such as PINs or biometrics, as well as terminal risk management and processing flows between card, terminal and issuer. The standards apply to both contact and contactless (NFC) transactions and are designed to work with major payment networks.

Compliance and certification are managed through EMVCo. Manufacturers, payment processors and issuers undergo conformance testing to obtain certification, which is typically required for broad acceptance of EMV-enabled cards and terminals. Widespread adoption of EMVNormen has contributed to enhanced security, reduced fraud and the global shift toward chip-based and contactless payments.