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What is EMV and the EMV Liability Shift?
EMV is a fraud-reducing technology that can help protect issuers, merchants and consumers against losses from the use of counterfeit and lost or stolen payment cards at the point-of-sale. EMV cards are embedded with a microprocessor or smart chip that interacts with the merchant’s point-of-sale device to make sure that the payment card is valid and with the use of a PIN that it belongs to the person using the card. This kind of chip technology adds layers of security against fraud and is virtually impossible to duplicate! EMV -- which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is a global standard for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology used to authenticate chip-card transactions. ln the wake of numerous large-scale data breaches and increasing rates of counterfeit card fraud, U.S. card issuers are migrating to this new technology to protect consumers and reduce the costs of fraud. These new and improved cards are being implemented to improve payment security, making it more difficult for fraudsters to successfully counterfeit cards. For merchants and financial institutions, the switch to EMV means adding new in-store technology and internal processing systems, and complying with new liability rules. For consumers, it means activating new cards and learning new payment processes. Consumers are receiving chip-card already, it is predicted that by the end of this year, 2015, every household will have at least one card with a chip. The EMV Liability Shift Remember the date your business opened? Of course you do and there is fast approaching another date you want burned into memory. As of October 1st, 2015 which is a deadline created by major credit card issuers, Mastercard, Visa, Discover and American Express, where card present fraud liability will shift to whoever is the least EMV-compliant party in a fraudulent transaction. Why you don’t want the EMV Liability to shift to you, the business. You, the business will be liable for the fraudulent card transactions if it’s not equipped with the right hardware to process EMV payments using EMV cards (also known as SMART cards and Chip cards). Think of the chip in your card as a kind of security guard making sure the bad guys can’t process a fake transaction and protecting consumers and businesses against fraud. And, it’s not just the big guys like Target or Home Depot as 90% of all security breaches impact small businesses. In 2013 alone, there was $7B in losses reported as fraud. This can really hurt a small business and end up costing you a week or two of revenue….! Not to mention what having a breach can do to your businesses reputation. You don’t need this worry or headache! J & A Business Solutions is here to help you and protect your business. |