Value is in the added security
by: Brandon Kuehl
Cost concerns, delays in smoothing out technical details and hold-ups among plastic card suppliers have slowed some community financial institutions’ (FIs’) transition to EMV chip cards. However, there remains strong value in being proactive when it comes to an EMV chip card conversion. That value is in the added security offered by chip technology, making cardholders more likely to pull the card from their wallets first.
Below are some factors for community FIs to remember when looking at their own EMV implementation timeline:
- Don’t wait — Communicate your plans to your vendors sooner rather than later. Queues are long and likely to get longer.
- Consider mass reissuance — Mass reissuance wasn’t common for credit programs converting to EMV. However, it will likely be more common with debit cards due to the volume of cards and the quickly approaching liability shift date.
- Don’t panic — Many merchants are in the same boat (it’s estimated just 34 percent of retailers will be EMV ready by October 2015).
