EMV…are you ready for the shift in payment terminal requirements?

Are you ready for EMV?  How about the liability shift?  If you are not ready, you may want to start thinking about getting ready.

What is EMV?  EMV, which stands for, Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, is becoming the global standard for authenticating credit and debit card transactions.  Also known as chip cards, these new credit and debit cards will contain an integrated circuit chip that will help to prevent fraudulent charges.  EMV will start to require that a customer insert their card into an EMV-capable reader, and then enter in a PIN number to prove that they are the cardholder.  This increased security has allowed some credit card issuers to set a date for a liability shift.  Once the liability shift happens, merchants are now liable for any fraud that results from transactions on a system that is not EMV capable.  If an EMV card is present at the time of the fraudulent charge, then the cardholder will be considered liable unless they can unquestionably prove that they were not present for the transaction, did not inadvertently assist the transaction through PIN disclosure, or did not authorize the transaction.  Most major credit card companies have set the date as October 2015 for most retail credit card transactions, while the dates for pay at the pump gas stations and ATMs can be either 2016 or 2017, depending upon the credit card company.  While this liability shift is aimed at card-present transactions, both Visa and MasterCard are also looking at standards for using an EMV card in card-not-present transactions over the telephone and internet.

With EMV becoming the Global standard for credit card transactions, many credit card companies are pushing liability shifts so that they are no longer liable for fraudulent charges.  With those liability shifts happening in the United States in the upcoming years, is your business ready to handle EMV transactions?  Are you ready for the shift?

Don’t struggle with trying to put together the right payments solutions to make this shift.  Does it seem confusing or do you feel you have to go to many sources to get all you need for your customer? Let us help you put together complete point-of-sale solutions that include the payments portion that will address the needs required for the shift to EMV and make it easy for you at the same time.