4 Things That Have Changed Since The Oct. 1 EMV Liability Shift

By Karen Cox, Vice President, Payments & Retail Solutions, Moneris

EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa), a global standard for chip card technology, has been at the heart of payments news over the past few months. The October 1 liability shift date signified that merchants nationwide will assume liability for fraud if they lack point-of-sale tools that can accept the new chip cards. While there is still a long way to go before EMV becomes America’s new normal, the process of merchant conversion is well under way. Consumers and merchants alike are adapting to the EMV learning curve as the rollout continues. As we wait to achieve ubiquity in the EMV marketplace, let’s look at a few things that have already changed since October 1:

1. A Growing Awareness Of EMV And Mobile Payment Preferences. While current EMV adoption rates are low, the media frenzy around the October 1 liability shift put the spotlight on EMV’s foundational role in data security. Merchants are realizing that the cost of upgrading their payment processing technology is trivial compared to the cost of a data breach, which averages at $3.8 million, according to the Ponemon Institute. Being EMV-ready can also help improve a business’s overall reputation, demonstrating that they care about the safety of consumers’ data and driving customer loyalty and brand trust. A breach could have potentially devastating effects on smaller merchants as they are now required to assume the full financial burden of any payment fraud and don’t want to be viewed as lagging in adopting higher security protocols.

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