Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) Compliance
GR-5B.1.13
Prepaid cards issued by PSPs in the Kingdom of Bahrain must be EMV compliant. Moreover, all POSs, CDMs and Kiosks must be EMV compliant for accepting cards issued in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In this context, EMV compliant means using chip and online PIN authentication. However, contactless card payment transactions, where no PIN verification is required, are permitted for small amounts i.e. up to BD 20 per transaction, provided that licensees bear full responsibility in case of fraud occurrence.
Added: July 2019
GR-5B.1.13A
Where contactless payments use Consumer Device Cardholder Method (CDCVM) for payment authentication and approval, then the authentication required for transactions above BD20 limit mentioned in Paragraph GR-5B.1.13 is not applicable given that the customer has already been authenticated by his device using PIN, biometric or other authentication methods. This is only applicable where the debit/credit card of the customer has already been tokenized in the payment application.
Added: July 2020GR-5B.1.14
Licensees must ensure, with effect from 1st October 2019, that any new POS terminals or devices support contactless payment using Near Filed Communication "NFC" technology.Added: October 2019
GR-5B.1.15
Licensees must ensure, that any payment card issued or reissued on or after 12th October 2019 supports contactless payment using Near Field Communications "NFC" technology.Added: October 2019
