Chip and PIN: The next big compliance deadline?

by: Henry Meier

When a President has to react to a serious problem but doesn’t know what more he can do to solve it, he appoints a “Czar” as in a “Drug Czar” or “Ebola Czar.“ When a President has ideas about how to solve a problem but can’t get anyone to agree to his solution, he holds a summit.

The President is a smart guy who knows that cybersecurity is a major issue about which Congress has failed to act. Last year, 100 million consumers were victims of data breaches. So this past Friday, the President announced that he would be hosting a cybersecurity summit.

While the bully pulpit only goes so far, the actions announced by the President and major retailers on Friday underscore that, for card issuing credit unions, October 2015 looms as one of the biggest compliance deadlines. As you probably already know, October 2015 is when that liability shifts for card issuers and merchants accepting Visa and MasterCard that don’t have chip-and-pin technology.

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