EMV The Answer To Fraud? No, Says Analyst

SAN FRANCISCO-As merchants in the United States continue to resist replacing magnetic stripe plastic cards with modern chip and PIN models, one fraud expert believes the "EMV" solution will never gain critical mass in this country.

David Mattei, VP fraud solutions for Vantiv, noted EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, chip and PIN cards are widely deployed throughout the world, is not a panacea for card-related fraud. Criminals, however, would benefit by increasing counterfeit card usage.

"Another technology will come along to leapfrog EMV and provide a better solution," he told attendees of the NAFCU Annual Conference here.

Among the possible candidates: adding "fingerprinting" to magnetic stripe cards to make each one unique shows some promise, he said. One-time passwords for card usage are an option that is "interesting, but limited," Mattei assessed.

Making the 3- or 4-digit CVV, or card verification value, that appears on the back of most plastic cards dynamic is an option being explored by issuers. Mattei said some debit cards have keypads installed.

"Plastic fraud is not going away because consumers don't want to carry cash around."

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