If you’ve worked on EMV before, you already know—it can feel like learning a whole new language. When I was doing an EMV integration project for one of our merchant platforms, I kept bumping into strange acronyms and cryptic specs. It took me a while to get familiar with the most important terms.
So here’s a list of 15 EMV terms you really need to know if you’re working with chip card payments.
- EMV – Short for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa. It’s the global standard for secure chip-based card payments.
- AID (Application Identifier) – This is a unique identifier for a card application, like Visa debit or Mastercard credit.
- TVR (Terminal Verification Results) – A 5-byte value from the terminal that records which checks passed or failed during a transaction.
- TSI (Transaction Status Information) – This shows what EMV processes were performed during the transaction, such as offline data authentication or cardholder verification.
- ARQC (Authorization Request Cryptogram) – A cryptographic value generated by the card and sent to the issuer as part of the online authorization request.
- ARPC (Authorization Response Cryptogram) – A cryptogram sent back by the issuer in response to ARQC to approve or decline the transaction.
- GPO (Get Processing Options) – A command sent to the card to start the transaction process after selecting an application.
- CDOL (Card Risk Management Data Object List) – A list of data elements the terminal sends to the card when requesting a cryptogram.
- DE55 (Data Element 55) – An ISO 8583 message field where EMV-related data like ARQC and AIP are packed when communicating with the host.
- AIP (Application Interchange Profile) – Returned by the card, this tells what functions it supports, such as offline PIN or SDA.
- ATC (Application Transaction Counter) – A counter inside the card that increments with every transaction. Useful for detecting suspicious activity.
- SFI (Short File Identifier) – A reference used to read specific records from the EMV file system.
- DDA (Dynamic Data Authentication) – An advanced method of authenticating a card using dynamic cryptography to prove it’s genuine.
- CVM (Cardholder Verification Method) – A set of rules defining how the cardholder’s identity is verified: PIN, signature, none, etc.
- TLV (Tag-Length-Value) – The format used to encode EMV data, where each field has a tag, a length, and a value.
Final Thoughts
These 15 terms cover the basics you’ll encounter almost every day when working with EMV cards, terminals, or backend systems. If you take time to learn them now, it will save you a lot of confusion later.
Sources and References
- EMVCo Official Site: https://www.emvco.com
- EMV Book 3: Application Specification
- Mastercard M-TIP Documentation
- Visa Chip Implementation Guide (VCIG)
