EMV implementation guide for retailers

EMV chip cards

Pymnts.com article gives retailers a step-by-step guide to EMV implementation

Fraud related to counterfeit cards has been essentially eliminated fraud in countries where EMV is already adopted, especially where ‘chip & pin’ is required. 

October 1, 2015 is the deadline established by major U.S. credit card issuers (MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express) when card-present fraud liability shifts to whoever is the least EMV-compliant party in a fraudulent transaction.  For example, if the financial institution issues a chip card that is used at a retailer who hasn’t changed their payment terminal to accept chip technology and fraud occurs, the cost of the fraud will be the merchant’s. 

Many of us are starting to receive chip cards that also include magnetic stripes.  This 1st round of chip cards will ensure that there’s no disruption to our spending, regardless of whether EMV in place, or not.  The payment terminal at the checkout will walk you through the process of whether you need to swipe your card or insert and enter PIN. 

Mercator Advisory Group estimates that 58% of credit cards will be EMV compliant by the end of 2015 and projects US consumers will complete EMV transactions totaling $950 billion using credit cards alone.

Merchants are concerned with implementation – specifically, costs and consumer experience. While there’s not much they can do about costs, they do have more control over how they manage the customer experience. 

With EMV, checkout times will be slower than they currently are, and POS terminals will take more time to read a chip than a magstripe.

The security of payments is much bigger than just EMV. The article suggests retailers who take a layered approach that includes EMV, encryption and tokenization, will benefit from reduced PCI-compliance costs and greatly reduce liability in the event of data theft or loss.

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