The Status Of EMV

The October 1, 2015, deadline for merchants to become EMV compliant or potentially face increased liability has come and gone. Yet, a significant number of both card issuers and merchants have not yet made the switch.

EMV is the acronym for the Europay, MasterCard, and Visa standard, sometimes referred to as "chip-and-pin." The standard was first introduced in Europe nearly 30 years ago, but the United States is just now making the transition. EMV cards contain microprocessor chips designed to make it more difficult to steal consumers' payment card information. Unlike magnetic stripe cards, the EMV cards create a unique code for each transaction. Even if a hacker obtains the code, it cannot be used again.