EMV is the global standard for chip-and-PIN and contactless card payments, named after the three schemes (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) that created it. EMV chips contain dynamic data that makes them far harder to clone than magnetic stripes, which is why EMV adoption shifted card-present fraud away from chip-enabled markets. EMV underpins both contact and contactless card-present payments.
Travel payments glossary
EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa)
The global standard for chip-and-PIN and contactless card payments.
Why it matters in travel
Card-present touchpoints in travel — shop counters, on-tour retail, airport desks — depend on EMV terminals to benefit from the standard’s liability rules. Skipping EMV in a card-present setting can move chargeback liability back onto the merchant.
For travel businesses with physical touchpoints, EMV is the dividing line between liability shifted to the issuer and liability carried by the merchant. A shop counter accepting a magnetic-stripe transaction in 2026 is paying chargeback risk it does not have to. The cost of upgrading to EMV is a one-off; the cost of carrying the liability is recurring.
The travel businesses that get EMV right keep card-present and card-not-present payments inside the same booking-level picture so the operations team is not learning two reconciliation patterns. The businesses that treat physical retail and online as separate worlds accept double the operational cost and double the risk surface.
How felloh helps
felloh keeps card-present and card-not-present payments in the same booking-level picture, so finance can reconcile and reason about both without splitting them across separate systems.
Where this shows up in risk and disputes.
EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) touches more than one workflow at felloh. Start with the pages most travel teams reach for next.
- Financial Control
Control refunds, exceptions, supplier exposure and payment risk against the same booking record.
Explore - Financial Protection Data
Authentication, settlement, protected funds and refund history kept with the booking for dispute defence.
Explore - Payment Optimisation
Acceptance, decline and authentication evidence so you can act on the patterns that matter.
Explore
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Connect the dots.
See how payments, settlement, refunds and reporting evidence connect around every booking.