EMV Chip Cards
EMV Chip Cards for Chip and PIN / Chip and Signature Payment Processing?
EMV implemented by American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard, UnionPay, and Visa uses a chip embedded into the card rather than the magnetic stripe on the back of the card. This new standard was introduced to cut down on fraudulent transactions on credit cards. The chip holds encrypted account information to make it more secure than traditional credit card transactions. End to End encryption encrypts data at the moment of reading the card all the way to the payment gateway and back.
In 2015 EMV came to the forefront by imposing a ‘liability shift’ from banks to merchants. That means that if a merchant accepts an EMV chip card and uses the magnetic stripe of the card and there is a chargeback, the merchant is on the hook for that transaction. Since then business owners have faced having to purchase newer credit card terminals that can read the EMV chip. Today if you purchase a credit card reader it should have EMV built in or you should choose a different terminal and use the chip for all your transactions.
Security is at the heart of EMV. By transmitting encrypted data, even if hackers are snooping on the transaction, the data they gather is useless to them. Data breaches and fraud go further than just affecting a business. Studies show businesses hit with a security breach or fraud are likely to lose more than half of their business as a result. Some estimates are as high as 60%. When a customer feels their financial data is at risk they shy away from spending with that business.
Although there is no legal requirement to make the switch to EMV, the liability and loss of business are the greatest motivators to switch to the newer technology. NFC (Near Field Communication) payments or tap to pay transactions are equally secure to EMV ‘chip and dip’ payments and terminals that support one, usually support the others. This opens up another payment option to your customers while increasing the security level of your payment transactions.
When first introduced, the cost for EMV capable terminals were quite high. Today EMV compliant chip card readers can be had for as little as $50. That cost is being driven down as the technology takes hold in the U.S.
Chip and PIN or Chip and signature. For further authentication a PIN can be supplied with the debit transaction or a signature with a credit card transaction. Further, card skimmers which read the magnetic stripe on the card allows a fraudster to reconstruct a physical card with the same magnetic strip. This is not the case with EMV chip cards.
Most credit card issuers have already been issuing chipcards for several years. Today there are very few cards that do not have a chip present, and for those situations, the magnetic strip is still available to process transactions. Card issuers that are granting EMV chip cards are:
VIS – Visa
Mastercard chip – Mastercard
AEIPS – American Express
UICS – China Union Pay
J Smart – JCB
D-PAS – Discover/Diners Club International
Rupay – NPCI
- National Transaction Corporation
- April , 2024 | 2024-04-19