In this EMV® Insights post, Oliver Manahan, EMVCo Director of Engagement and Operations, summarises the key discussions from the Charleston Board of Advisors Meeting and how they are shaping the development of EMV Specifications.
The EMVCo Board of Advisors Meeting welcomes key payments industry stakeholders from across the world, giving the community a space to connect with peers, gain insight into EMVCo’s ongoing work and be part of the discussion around upcoming priorities.
In October, EMVCo Advisors came together in Charleston, USA to discuss the latest trends, challenges and opportunities within the payments industry, including the rise of agentic commerce, the convergence of digital identity and payments, and the role of testing in enhancing the in-store payment experience. Here are some of the key takeaways:
The rise of agentic commerce
Agentic commerce refers to the emerging trend of consumers being able to instruct AI agents to act on their behalf to make a purchase. This is driving significant momentum for agentic payments, which introduce AI agents as new actors that can initiate transactions with merchants – without requiring direct involvement from the consumer.
While agentic payments have the potential to increase convenience and personalisation, they present unique considerations for how transactions are initiated, authenticated and secured – some of which were examined in an EMVCo Associate presentation from James Rendell, CTO at Arcot by Broadcom.
As industry adoption and innovation accelerate, a globally interoperable and scalable approach may help realise trusted agentic payments for consumers, merchants and issuers. This is why EMVCo is working on how EMV Specifications can be developed and enhanced to promote seamless and secure card-based agentic payments and increase trust and interoperability across the ecosystem.
Exploring the convergence of digital identity and payments
The rise of agentic commerce reflects the broader convergence of digital identity and payments. This theme was covered in a guest presentation from Christina Hulka, Executive Director at the Secure Technology Alliance, exploring how the growing adoption of digital identity solutions and the rollout of digital identity initiatives around the world – including the use of mobile driver’s licenses (mDL) in the United States and the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet – are shaping the future of payments.
In light of this trend, EMVCo recently established the Digital Identity and Payments Task Force to guide the development of globally interoperable EMV Specifications to meet the opportunities and challenges posed by digital identity technologies across emerging e-commerce use cases. Attendees participated in a strategic discussion with the Task Force Chair, Sami Tikkala, covering the Task Force’s initial priorities and activities, which include the development of a schema for Digital Payment Credentials to promote interoperability and enable standardised processes for credential provisioning, request and verification.
Another digital credential shaping payments is passkeys, which enable users to seamlessly authenticate themselves using the same trusted process that they use to unlock their device. Sessions exploring the latest developments across EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) and EMV 3DS highlighted how passkeys can help to support an enhanced user experience.
The sessions on EMV SRC and EMV 3DS also featured extensive discussion on how the specifications are evolving to promote innovation by addressing ongoing technological developments and supporting emerging use-cases. There were also separate updates on the latest developments on EMVCo’s Electric Vehicle Open Payments (EVOP) initiative, as well as EMV Payment Tokenisation.
How testing is helping to enhance the in-store payment experience
EMVCo defines various testing processes – collectively known as EMVCo Approvals and Evaluations – that confirm products meet a baseline for security, performance and compatibility when deployed. During the meeting, Advisors examined how recent developments to these testing processes for EMV acceptance devices is helping to enable familiar, convenient, secure and reliable in-person payments.
Advisors heard how EMVCo’s Reduced Range approval process is supporting emerging payment acceptance methods such as TapToMobile, as well as recent updates to make the testing of contactless products more efficient and flexible to meet industry needs. An analysis of the considerations for testing cloud-based implementations was also complemented by an EMVCo Associate presentation from Jeff Bohlin, Director – Global Payment Solutions at the Bank of America.
In addition to EMV acceptance device testing, attendees also received an update on EMVCo’s work to develop a dedicated performance testing approval process for the fingerprint sensors on biometric payment cards to help balance convenience and security.
Contribute to the development of EMV Specifications
Taking place in Istanbul, Turkey from 10 – 11 March 2026, the next Board of Advisors meeting will once again enable industry stakeholders to shape EMVCo’s ongoing work and inform upcoming priorities.
For those not already participating, all interested stakeholders are encouraged to get involved and share their input and expertise on the strategic considerations and technical advances shaping the future of payments.
by Arman Aygen