What is EMV?

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard® and Visa® and refers to the increased security of payment card transactions through the use of a chip embedded in credit, debit, and prepaid cards.  Chip cards are extremely difficult to duplicate, and paired with additional layers of security such as encryption, tokenization and other authentication techniques, EMV is geared toward significantly reducing card payment fraud.

What Does it Mean for You and Your Business?

The EMV deadline, commonly referred to as the “liability shift”, is set for October 1, 2015.  The liability shift means that card issuers must begin to implement EMV chips in the cards they produce.  And, merchants who accept credit cards in a face-to-face environment must upgrade to chip-compatible equipment to avoid potential losses due to fraud and chargebacks.

What are the consequences of not being prepared for the Liability Shift?

If a cardholder using a chip card initiates a chargeback, and the merchant was not utilizing chip-compatible equipment, the merchant will be liable for any counterfeit card transactions.  In addition, the merchant who does not have an EMV-ready terminal could potentially become the target of criminals looking for opportunities to steal credit card information from the less secure non chip-compatible point of sale equipment.

What do Merchants need to do?

Impressia Bank has been preparing for the EMV liability shift for several months and can offer merchants several EMV-capable terminal options.  For your own protection, merchants should plan to upgrade POS card equipment to EMV-ready terminals no later than October 1, 2015.

How to know if your terminal is EMV compliant or not?

Please contact Katie Penoyer to determine if your Impressia Bank equipment is ready or to learn more about EMV and how to upgrade your terminal.  We are happy to assist and answer any questions you may have.