10 Questions to Ask Your

EMV Kernel Provider

April 2012

10 Questions to Ask Your

EMV Kernel Provider

Contents
Introduction

03

Questions to Ask Your

EMV Level 2 Kernel Provider

04

EMV Kernel Range

06

About Creditcall

07

02 creditcall.com

10 Questions to Ask Your EMV

Kernel Provider

Introduction
Contents

One of the most common decisions faced by payment

terminal or ATM manufacturers is
whether to develop in house or buy in the technology
of this critical component.

Those who decide to buy a Kernel from an EMV*

Level 2 Kernel supplier often do so because they
require a quicker route to market, have limited EMV
knowledge and expertise or do not wish to risk high
upfront cost of developing a solution in house.
Combine this with testing and the formal EMVCo
certication process, the majority of companies decide
to buy in a solution rather than develop it.
An EMV Level 2 Kernel is a critical element of the EMV
chip technology standard, and decisions on which
supplier to choose should be based not simply on the
initial development cost alone. Purchasing an EMV
Kernel for a payment device is not a one-o
technology purchase and should be considered more
of a long term investment. As the EMVCo standards
continually evolve, future code maintenance, re-certication and support
will be required and should be considered during the
initial purchasing evaluation in order to reduce risk
and eliminate any unexpected future cost.

An EMV Level 2 Kernel

is a critical element of
the EMV chip
technology standard...

This whitepaper provides a list of questions payment

device manufacturers and integrators need to
consider when outsourcing an EMV Kernel project to a
third party, highlighting pitfalls, risks and hidden cost.
* EMV is a trademark owned by EMVCo LLC.

creditcall.com 03

10 Questions to Ask Your

EMV Kernel Provider

Questions to Ask Your

EMV Level 2 Kernel
When researching the most suitable Kernel, price should not
be the only purchasing criteria. Anyone considering
purchasing a Kernel from a third party needs to ensure the
Kernel will be maintained and supported for the foreseeable
future. The following 10 questions should be directed to every
Kernel supplier when looking for the best solution:
How many years has the
1 company
been in business?
Purchasing a Kernel is not a one o
activity. It is important to choose an
established development partner with a
proven track record of success in
maintaining compliance with the evolving
EMVCo specications and a
demonstrable capability in providing
code updates and support.
Creditcall was incorporated in 1996 and
is a nancially stable, growing company
with two main focuses; the rst is EMV
Kernel technology (since 2002) and the
second, payment processing (since
1997). The company has a global reach,
operating in Europe, the USA and
Canada.

2 How nancially strong is the

company?

As the EMVCo standards change,

signicant resources need to be put into
both R&D, in order to maintain
compliance with the standard, and into
costly EMVCo test tools. Any
development partner must show more
than token commitment to maintaining
their EMV Level 2 Kernels.
Creditcall has maintained nancial
stability even through the current
04 creditcall.com

economic climate and has no debt. This

has been realised through prudent
nancial management and a worldwide
customer base. Creditcall is also a PCI
DSS Level 1 Certied payment gateway
which provides another diverse revenue
stream, again on a global basis. In short,
Creditcall is not dependant on a single
source of revenue.

3 How many years has the

company been developing

and maintaining their EMV
Level 2 Kernel?

The EMVCo technical standards are

vastly complex and continue to become
more so. Maintaining a detailed
understanding of these standards
requires not only a highly qualied
development team but one with years of
experience within the world of
transaction processing. To get a project
to market quickly and avoid costly delays,
only a developer with proven track
record should be selected.
Creditcall rst developed an EMV
Level 2 Kernel in 2001 which was
commercialised in 2002. Since then,
the core Kernel has been updated to
support every new version of the EMV
Level 2 standard including minor and
major changes or those detailed in the

many EMVCo bulletins. This has built

up 30 man years of real world
experience within its EMV team. This
means when we embark upon a
customers EMV project we can get
straight into the development and
integration process without wasting
time on research and learning, saving
the customer time and money.

How many dierent

4 platforms
does the
companys Kernel support?
With numerous operating systems and
processors in use in terminals today,
one EMV Kernel cannot t all.
However manufacturers often have to
make their application work across a
range of hardware platforms to stay
competitive.
Creditcalls EMV Kernel range includes
products for all common platforms
including Windows, Windows CE and
Java. ANSI C contact and contactless
versions complete the picture allowing
EMV acceptance on virtually any
embedded platform. In short, there is
no other company that can oer the
same level of platform coverage.

10 Questions to Ask Your

EMV Kernel Provider

100%
rst time EMVCo
certication pass
track record

Are EMVCo pre-certication

5 testing services provided or

included?

An EMV Kernel supplier should use the

same test tools as the EMVCo certication laboratory before submitting the
Kernel for EMVCo certication. This will
increase the likelihood of your Kernel
passing the formal EMVCo Certication
rst time, ensuring your project remains
within budget and on time.
Creditcall use the same test tools as
the EMVCo certication laboratories
and to date has a 100% rst time pass
track record. As pre-certication
testing is an iterative process where
we normally identify issues, our EMV
team can often help you pin point what
the issues are and suggest suitable
remedies or workarounds.

6 Does the company have an

excellent relationship with
an EMVCo approved test
laboratory?

Payment devices that incorporate an

EMV Level 2 Kernel come in all shapes
and sizes from battery powered
handheld PIN pads, dierent types of
PoS terminals, right through to oor
standing ATMs and ticketing machines.
In order to minimise cost, delay and
additional complexity the relationship
with the EMVCo approved test
laboratory is critical.
Over the last 10 years, Creditcall has
built a trusted relationship with TV
Product Service, less than 2 hours from
its development centre. TV is an
internationally renowned testing,
qualication and consultancy, and
work with Creditcall to maximise
eciency in all aspects of the certication process, whilst ensuring every
detail of the standard is met. Creditcall
oers a service where an EMV

Engineer accompanies the equipment

to the laboratory to set it up and
answer any questions, in addition to
assisting the laboratory tester with the
more dicult tests.

How many products has the

7 Kernel been integrated

into?

Every EMV Kernel certication is

dierent and the number of separate
products a Kernel supplier has
successfully certied their Kernel with
is a measure of their breadth of
experience and expertise.
Creditcall has successfully undertaken
over 100 separate certications in
terminals as diverse as simple PIN
pads, ATMs, handheld devices, mobile
phones and Windows based ticketing
devices.

8 Do they manage the

EMVCo certication on
your behalf?
A Kernel provider should manage the
EMVCo certication process on behalf
of the customer.
The EMVCo certication process is
often complex and requires that the
supplier liaises with EMVCo test
laboratory and EMVCo. Creditcall
oers a managed EMVCo certication
which means all aspects of the certication are managed, we will even
provide links to documentation that
needs to be completed and advise
when EMVCo requires payment.

Do they oer a source code

9 escrow
service?
For absolute certainty in the
maintenance of a critical software
component such an EMV Kernel,
software escrow can be requested as
part of the licensing agreement, such
that in the event of the supplier closing
down through bankruptcy the source
code can be released to the licensee.
Creditcall views the request for escrow
as the customers prerogative, and will
fully cooperate with any such
arrangement. For peace of mind,
Creditcall uses the well-respected
NCC Group for such agreements.

10 Has their EMV Kernel really

been developed from the
ground up with embedded
platforms in mind?

Many Kernel providers developed their

Kernel on larger PC based
environments where processor and
memory constraints (both ash and
dynamic) are less of an issue.
Creditcall developed EMV.LIB and
Contactless.LIB specically for
embedded environments with limited
memory, processor speed, stack and
other resources that are taken for
granted in PC based environments.
Our embedded products have been
used on the most challenging
embedded environments from Z180
based systems with 32K of memory to
ARM based platforms with less than
256K of memory. Creditcall pioneered
the concept of a hardware abstraction
layer in relation to EMV Kernels
enabling the Kernel to be compiled for
virtually any environment with a C
compiler.

creditcall.com 05

10 Questions to Ask Your

EMV Kernel Provider

EMV Kernel Range

With numerous operating systems and processors in use in
terminals today, one Kernel cannot t all. We provide a range of
Kernels to match the architecture of the terminal exactly.
EmvX
Windows &
Windows CE

EMV.LIB
Embedded Systems

EmvJ
Java

Contactless.LIB

Operating Systems/
Platform

Windows 95/XP/7,
Windows CE

Any platform that has

a C compiler

Any Java Virtual

Machine

Any platform that has

a C compiler

Supported
Development
Languages

Any language that

supports Windows
COM interfaces or
.NET (e.g. C++, C#,
Visual Basic)

C, C++

Java

C, C++

Library Format

Windows .DLL using

COM interface

Depends on the
toolset available (e.g.
object les or static
library)

.Jar package

Depends on the
toolset available (e.g.
object les or static
library)

Advantages

Easy to use,
handles platform
specic functionality
automatically

Fully ANSI-C
compliant and
completely
Hardware
independent,
custombuilt for each
target platform

Easily portable to any

Java platform

Fully ANSI-C
compliant and
completely Hardware
independent,
custombuilt for each
target platform

Ideally Suited For

Retail and kiosk

payment applications
running on Windows

NFC enabled devices

& embedded
platforms with limited
resources and custom
hardware

Java-based payment
applications
andserver-based
solution

NFC enabled
devices & embedded
platforms with limited
resources and custom
hardware

06 creditcall.com

10 Questions to Ask Your

EMV Kernel Provider

About Creditcall
Creditcall makes card acceptance simple from any device, anywhere. Whether
attended, unattended, online or mobile payments, our award-winning EMV-ready
payment gateway and EMV Migration solutions are at the very heart of our clients
businesses, ensuring payments ow all day, every day.
Founded in 1996 and with over 14 years of EMV experience,
Creditcall has a proven track record in providing payment
gateway services and oers EMV Migration solutions that
are tried and tested.

mPOS

Our EMV Migration solution, ChipDNA, is a rapid EMV

Migration SDK for Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. It
greatly helps ISVs transition from older magnetic stripe
technology to EMV and Chip technology. ChipDNA is the
easiest and most cost eective way of adding EMV
payment functionality into an attended or unattended
Point of Sale (POS) application.

EMV Migration

We were the rst EMV-ready Payment Gateway in the

U.S., and completed our EMV certication in April 2014.
Our Chip-based EMV Level 1 and EMV Level 2 Kernel
software is used globally in contact and contactless
environments such as ATMs, mPOS, card readers,
PINpads and other POS devices.

Mobile
& Online

POS

We are the rst EMV-compliant mPOS solution to allow

businesses accept Chip and PIN cards on the go via
smartphones and tablets.
Millions of users and billions of transactions depend on
Creditcall EMV technology each and every day. Creditcall
works collaboratively with companies across Europe, North and
South America, South Africa and Asia-Pacic to deliver
business-critical payment solutions. Clients include ATOS, DHL,
Elavon, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Toyota, Wayne (a GE Company)
and Westeld.

Creditcall The Heart of Payments.

07 creditcall.com

Parking

Transport

Ticketing

Vending
ATM

Regional Oces
Creditcall Europe
Merchants House North, Wapping Road, Bristol, BS1 4RW, United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)117 930 4455
F: +44 (0)117 930 4477
E: hello@creditcall.com
W: www.creditcall.com
Registered No: 3295353.
VAT Registered No: 713 0076 80.
Creditcall North America
1133 Broadway, Suite 706, New York, NY 10010, USA
T: +1 (800) 868 1832
F: +1 (212) 300 8006
E: hello@creditcall.com
W: www.creditcall.com