4 questions you aren’t asking about EMV

It’s hard to have all the answers about EMV. In fact, sometimes it’s even hard to pose all the right questions. If you haven’t asked the following questions yet – or you haven’t asked them of the right people – here are four queries you might want to post:

1. Aren’t we EMV-ready for debit yet?

We’ve made tremendous progress: We’re nearly there. In fact, CO-OP Financial Services has the systems in place, and we’re helping clients kick off their planning in hopes that we’ll all be ready to roll out soon. Until all of the terminal issues have been resolved so that they work to your satisfaction, however, we think it’s better to go slow.

2. Will it kill us to move now?

No. But because critical terminal issues are still being hammered out, you run the risk of having transactions route in unexpected ways, possibly affecting your profitability. We also expect certifications costs to come down in the near future. Our advice is to wait until details are solidified – another six months to a year – for actual rollout.

3. Will EMV affect our debit-related revenue?

Quite possibly, yes – especially as terminal and network issues unfold. For example, suppose you issue a Visa debit card now, with the Visa common AID. A card is used with a PIN at a terminal that is enabled for EMV, but doesn’t yet have the logic to choose the common AID. That transaction will be routed to Visa, as a PAVD transaction, and not a regional network. This could affect your revenue/expense on that transaction.