EMV Migration: Why Experience Matters

By Carlos Romero, PowaPOS

With just more than a year until the U.S. reaches the Fraud Liability Shift deadline, the time is right for the U.S. to join more than 80 other nations in adopting the more secure EMV card. In fact, in its report on global card fraud, The Nilson Report noted that the U.S. is the only region where counterfeit fraud continues to grow consistently, accounting for 47.3% of global losses in 2012, while generating only 23.5% of the total transactions volume. While all of the causes of card fraud are not the same, these numbers speak to the urgent need for more secure technology.

Typically, when merchants first consider the migration to EMV, their focus is on the hardware: what card reader do I need to allow my POS terminal to accept chip-and-PIN?

But, as industry consultant Rick Oglesby noted recently in PaymentsSource, “The differences between the mag stripe reader and the EMV reader go beyond physical attributes.”

EMV conversion doesn’t begin and end with the card reader, and this is where experience matters. Successful EMV migration and implementation includes an understanding of all of the technical considerations affected by the move to a chip-based card – or a partner who does. Only then will you feel confident in providing your customers with the solution that will make their transition as trouble-free as it can be.

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