| [ Lexcelerated News ]
August 5, 2005
Lexcel Supports LINK Transition to Multi-Application EMV/CHIP Technology
Background:
Card fraud in the UK was projected to increase from $700 million in 2001 to over $1.3 billion in 2005, if left unchecked. In an effort to reduce the rapidly escalating problem of credit and debit card fraud in the UK, the banking and retail industries, with the support of the UK Government embarked on an ambitious smart card project called CHIP and PIN. The CHIP on the smart card ensures the card is genuine and the user entered PIN ensures the person presenting the card is its true owner.
Solution:
As the national ATM network that connects over 55,000 ATMs and 51 Member institutions, LINK is an integral part of the nation’s money supply and electronic payments infrastructure. In order to ensure its systems are capable of supporting CHIP and PIN for its Members and customers, LINK enhanced its transaction processing systems and integrated Lexcel technology into its internal testing and Member certification process.
LINK technical enhancements included changes to the LIS5 message format to support EMV mandated changes for chip card transaction processing and the introduction of new services such as PIN Management at the ATM. Changes to the LIS5 message format included addition of new Chip transactions (authorization requests, responses, reversals), new fields and sub-fields, and complex cryptograms and encryption algorithms.
LINK looked to Lexcel to implement a test system to help unit, system, and regression test the new Chip enabled Host application and also to help with the re-certification of all LINK Members to the new LIS5 Chip message format. Lexcel enhanced the TestSystem Network –LIS5 format for Acquirers and Issuers to build and exchange Chip compliant messages with full EMV encryption support.
Internally, LINK used the LIS5 simulators to validate the Host application software’s ability to handle the increased message payload, pass unadulterated Chip information between the acquirer and issuer, and ensure its hardware systems were able to handle the large volumes of additional data.
As part of the re-certification process LINK Members used the LIS5 test systems to exchange Chip transactions with Application Request Cryptograms (ARQC), Application Response Cryptograms (ARPC), and Issuer Scripts for testing the Issuers’ ability to unlock a user’s PIN number or allow a card holders to change PIN numbers.
In partnership with Lexcel, LINK, the busiest ATM Switch in the world is on target to transition through EMV mandated changes to support Chip Cards and processing of Chip transactions by the end of 2005.
LINK Interchange Network Ltd is the transaction management company whose primary focus of attention is switching and settling shared transactions for LINK, the world's busiest ATM network. The company currently processes over 2.4 billion secure transactions per year for the 51 LINK network Members. www.link.co.uk
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