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Results of New ATMIA Survey Confirm Concerns Over Premature Liability Shift – Few Are Ready

SIOUX FALLS, SD (April 29, 2013) – The ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) today announced the results of a new survey that confirms concerns are justified about the premature ATM liability shift that went into effect a week ago.

The survey shows that few have access to the solutions necessary to deploy EMV-capable ATMs, and even fewer have been able to meet the liability deadline.   An 88% majority of respondents indicated that they would be unable to deploy even one ATM capable of accepting EMV transactions by the April 19, 2013 liability shift date.  In fact, only 9% have access to all of the solutions they need to get that job done.

This liability shift for ATM operators only will continue to be a serious problem for the industry with unpredictable results and unintended consequences.  MasterCard is forcing one-off solutions upon individual operators that will have to be re-certified once the industry has resolved the challenges associated with Durbin requirements and other debit system prerequisites. MasterCard has already denied several reasonable requests by ATMIA to postpone the liability shift and align it to those for retail POS or Visa ATM milestones.

MasterCard’s response has been to offer up a new set of acquirer-based fraud detection tools.  And along with that, is touting the benefits of one system rule in particular, which will block all Maestro transactions at ATMs with essentially no past history of Maestro traffic.  “All they are really doing,” states ATMIA USA Executive Director, David Tente, “is assuring that any Maestro fraud that occurs, occurs at terminals that already see an average of at least one Maestro transaction per month.  Partial solutions like this are rarely effective in actually reducing the overall rate of fraud.”

Survey results would seem to indicate that respondents share Tente’s skepticism.  Only 6% are ‘Very Confident’ that MasterCard’s fraud detection tools will “protect [them] from fraud resulting from counterfeit EMV cards used on non-EMV compliant ATMs.”   Most (58%) are not sure whether or not they will actually experience fraud losses.

What remains less clear is how ATM operators will respond.  Only 12% of respondents are considering the possibility of taking some ATMs out of service – either temporarily or permanently.  However, another 34% aren’t sure.   Mike Lee, ATMIA CEO, concludes “We are off to the worst possible start for EMV migration in the USA – there is uncertainty, unpreparedness and an unknown field of possible outcomes thanks to this completely premature deadline forced on the industry.”

Survey results are posted on the ATMIA website, on the USA Chapter ‘News’ pages.

About the ATM Industry Association
The ATM Industry Association is a global non-profit trade association with over 3,700 members in 60 countries. Its mission is to promote ATM convenience, growth and usage worldwide, to protect the ATM industry’s assets, interests, good name and public trust; and to provide education, best practices, political voice and networking opportunities for member organizations.   More information about ATMIA can be found on their website, www.atmia.com.


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