EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa and is the technical standard that ensures chip-based payment cards and terminals are compatible around the world. The EMV standard is managed by EMVCo, LLC, which is equally owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa.
EMV Chip Technology requires issuing banks and companies to provide their customers with credit or debit cards with an embedded micro-processing chip. This chip will authenticate the credit card every time you make a transaction with a different code. In most cases you will still be asked for your PIN or signature when you credit card is processed.
The most significant advantage to utilizing the EMV chip and PIN card standard is the reduction in card fraud resulting from counterfeit, lost and stolen cards. EMV payment cards, unlike magnetic stripe cards, can also be used to perform secure online payment transactions.
"Major markets having already deployed EMV are predominately utilizing chip and PIN as the authentication method, as this has proven to be the most secure.” - From Total System Services, Inc.
As of October 2015, merchants will be held liable for counterfeit card transactions if they don’t support EMV technology. If a merchant has not adopted, at least, the contact chip terminals and a contact chip card is presented, liability for counterfeit fraud will shift to the merchant’s acquirer. This shifting liability strongly encourages chip adoption. EMVCo is also said to market this as safe way of shopping, if merchants don’t have the ability to process chip based credit cards, customers will wonder why this is not in place which could then turn into loss business.
Business owner have the option to purchase new credit card machines that will read the chip on cards or get a pin pad that connects to their existing machine. Contact your current credit card provider for more information, what changed need to be done in your business and any required training.
If you have any questions about credit card processing or EMV adoption, feel free to contact Danielle Seales from MLS Network at dseales@mlsdirectnetwork.com or 702-523-2884.
