Common Contactless Application (CCA)

Contactless Applications are the next technical evolution for card payments. Many pilots have already been implemented throughout the world. Similar to the implementation of the first contact-based payment applications, implementation of the first contactless applications took place on payment-scheme specific standards, which are not necessarily interoperable to each other and which may lead to a more complex implementation if it comes to a broader roll-out. 

The CIR Technical Working Group has analysed the implementation of EMV-based contactless applications and has identified Business Requirements for a Common Contactless Application which have been presented to the EMVCo Board of Advisors.

The European EMV Users and the CIR Technical Working Group want to come as soon as possible to the specification of a Common Contactless Application which complies with these Business Requirements. Therefore, the CIR Technical Working Group has progressed with the development of the Common Contactless Application specification by identifying the Card Requirements and the Terminal Requirements for an EMVCo Common Contactless Application. 

These "Requirements for an EMVCo Common Contactless Application (CCA)" have been presented to the EMVCo Board of Advisors and can be downloaded from "Documents" on this site.

Common Contactless Application (CCA) for Terminals

According to the Terminal Requirements, a Common Contactless Terminal Application is designed to work with any EMV-compliant contactless card and shall be based on the standard EMV application and transaction flow for contact chip cards, keeping any necessary changes to a minimum.

Based on these Terminal Requirements, the CIR Technical Working Group has started the development of the technical specification for the Common Contactless Terminal Application, re-using SEPA-FAST wherever possible. A first draft specification has been developed already and is available for download from "Documents" on this site.

The CIR Technical Working Group plans to enhance this first draft to improve the integration with the EMVCo Entry Point specification.

Common Contactless Application (CCA) for Cards

The Common Contactless Card Application is a contactless implementation based on the Common Payment Application Specification (CPA).

Implementing the Common Contactless Card Application on a CPA card does not require more than

·        Support of the contactless transmission mode according to the EMV Contactless Communication Protocol Specification

·        Support of the CPA implementer-options "Dynamic-RSA" and "Profile Selection Using Card Data".