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Survey: The waiting is the hardest part of EMV

7/7/2016

Tom Petty fans can commiserate with retailers who report having difficulty implementing EMV due to slow movement from the payment card industry.



According to a new survey of retailers conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in May and June, 48% of respondents had already implemented the new EMV chip card system or expected to have done so by the end of June. A total of 86% expect to have EMV up and running by the end of the year.



Of those who had not implemented, 57% said they had already installed the card readers and other equipment but were still waiting for certification by the card industry so they could turn it on. And 60% of those said they had been waiting for six months or longer.



The survey also found that EMV is a top priority for retailers. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed called it their top payments-related challenge for 2016, and 72% said it is their top payments initiative for the year.



“Under new card companies rules that took effect in October, if a counterfeit chip card is used in a non-chip card reader – or a chip reader that hasn’t been certified – the retailer has to absorb the fraud cost,” Mallory Duncan, NRF senior VP and general counsel, said in a statement. “In addition to fraud involving the new chip cards, some retailers say fraud from traditional magnetic stripe cards – which is the banks’ responsibility – is being improperly attributed to lack of a chip reader and charged to retailers.”
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