Visa Establishes EMV Chip Liability Shift for ATMs in Asia Pacific and the U.S.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) today announced a timeline to encourage  acquirers to upgrade ATMs in Asia Pacific and the U.S. to accept EMV (Europay MasterCard Visa) chip cards in a move to reduce fraudulent ATM transactions.

This initiative will allow Visa to assign liability for counterfeit fraud at ATMs to whichever party – acquirer or issuer – who has not adopted EMV chip technology by the required timeline. If a fraudulent transaction occurs on an EMV chip card used at an ATM that cannot accept EMV chip-enabled cards, the ATM acquirer will bear the cost for counterfeit fraud. Currently card issuers bear the liability for fraudulent ATM transactions.

“Visa’s roadmap is designed to make the security and flexibility of EMV chip technology available to consumers and issuers in every environment, including ATMs,” said Ian McKindley, Visa’s director of country risk management, Australia and New Zealand. “This new timeline balances the interests of issuers and ATM operators and provides time to include chip integration into ATM hardware upgrade plans. As a result, the entire marketplace can more quickly realise the strong security benefits of EMV chip technology in this critical channel.”

As previously announced, in Australia and New Zealand the liability shift will apply to all qualifying ATM transactions from 1 April 2013.  

In other markets Visa has established the following timelines for ATM transactions, across all Visa and/or Plus branded products:

Effective 1 October 2015 – Liability will shift in Asia Pacific, excluding China, India, Japan, and Thailand
Effective 1 April 2015 – U.S. third-party ATM acquirer processors and sub-processors must be able to support EMV chip data
Effective 1 October 2017 – Liability will shift in China[1], India, Japan, Thailand, and the U.S.
With liability shifts already in effect in Europe; Canada; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa; by 2017 Visa issuers and acquirers can rely on a single global liability policy that encourages chip-on-chip (EMV chip card read by an EMV chip card reader) transactions at both the point-of-sale and ATMs.

Since EMV chip payment devices generate dynamic values unique to each transaction and that change with every use, chip technology adds an additional layer of security that helps significantly reduce card present fraud. By encouraging investments in EMV chip technology, Visa is encouraging improved international interoperability and security with dynamic authentication as well as helping to build a foundation for mobile payments.