Visa Sticking to October EMV Liability Shift (May 4, 2015)
Visa Inc. is holding to its October 2015 fraud liability shift date for EMV chip acceptance, although several merchant groups reportedly have requested an extension. “Visa laid out our U.S. EMV chip road map in 2011 and we remain committed to that road map,” Eduardo Perez, senior vice president of risk services, said in an interview at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
All four major U.S. payments networks have set October 2015 as the date liability will shift for EMV acceptance. After that date, liability for fraudulent card use will fall to the party with the lowest level of security—meaning merchants that haven’t begun accepting EMV cards and issuers that haven’t migrated their cards. As the date approaches, several reports have emerged claiming that some retailers—especially smaller and midsize merchants—won’t have upgraded terminals in time. Last month, the Food Marketing Institute, reportedly asked the payments networks if they’d consider pushing back the liability shift date. The National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association also, reportedly, have made similar requests. MasterCard told Paybefore at the time that its EMV liability shift remains October.
“We know, based on how we’ve rolled out the EMV chip in other markets, that we won’t see all merchants chip-enabled by the liability shift date,” Perez said. “We do see that over time, as the liability shift takes effect, the merchants and acquirers and issuers have a strong incentive to deploy the technology. There is no mandate to deploy the technology, and we believe that the liability shift will act, as it has acted in other markets, to incent merchants to deploy the technology.”
For more details and statistics about how issuers and retailers are preparing for the U.S. EMV migration, look for the Spring 2015 issue of Pay Magazine, out later this month.
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