EMV: Converting Sooner than Later

Maybe this blog should be named EMV – What’s Still New as we continue to advise and educate merchants about the Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) initiative that continues to get a lot of press these days. This initiative only applies to card-present merchants accepting credit cards using a point-of-sale terminal or integrated POS system. EMV enables merchants to accept credit cards which are embedded with computer chips in addition to the mag stipe reader coded onto the back of the card. The intention is to cut down on fraudulent card sales by transitioning the industry from vulnerable mag stripe fraud (via reprogramming stolen card numbers to mag stripes) to the new chip cards, which cannot be reprogrammed. Of course, this presumes that consumer’s cards have been re-issued by their credit card issuing bank, which may take a couple more years to do.

The most relevant point is that merchants are not required to change their equipment to be EMV capable at this time. The October 15 deadline meant: a merchant that has not switched their POS terminal to an EMV model is liable for any loss as a result of their customer’s mag stripe card having been programmed with a stolen card number. Most merchants would not be a likely victim of this type of fraud anyway (like small ticket merchants and others not likely to be targeted by criminals). However, since the new EMV-capable equipment is also able to accept NFC devices (such as Apple Pay and Android Pay), Dharma is recommending that its merchants start the process of converting sooner than later. If you haven’t already, click here get started.