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U.S. travelers to other countries could kick-start a movement in the United States to embrace the global EMV standard that protects chip cards from fraud, according to speakers Tuesday at SourceMedia's CTST conference in New Orleans. U.S. issuers appear poised to distribute EMV-enabled cards to customers who want them for travel to such countries as Germany and the United Kingdom, where clerks, especially those in small shops and transit booths, sometimes refuse to accept magnetic stripe cards despite contracts requiring them to do so. Except for the U.S. and most parts of Africa, countries around the world, whether through government mandates or pressure from card organizations, are in various stages of EMV adoption. Western Europe has some of the world's strongest chip-and-PIN systems. Issuers at the show would not say whether they plan to issue EMV cards to U.S. consumers to make their traveling easier. But that day is drawing closer, says Martin Ferenczi, managing director of the Americas for the card systems division of France-based smart card vendor Oberthur Technologies. Like others at the conference, Ferenczi would not put a specific timetable on when U.S. issuers would commit to EMV, which is credited with reducing fraud losses from card counterfeiting, most notably in the UK. "Will it be 2010 or 2015? I'm not sure," he tells CardLine Global, a CardLine sister publication. "I'm not ready to announce yet that the U.S. is moving to EMV." To be sure, the hype surrounding EMV in the U.S. has led to disappointment over the years as reality has fallen short of expectations. "Two or three years ago, you could not have EMV discussions with issuers," says Jack Jania, vice president and general manager, secure transactions, for Gemalto, another France-based card vendor. "That has changed. Dialogue is taking place at a serious level now." One reason is the fear that fraudsters will migrate away from countries adopting the standard. "Fraud is going to migrate to the U.S. one of these days, big time," says René Bastien, payment products manager for Belcamp, Maryland-based Safenet Inc. Those countries include Canada, where Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and the national Interac debit network have embarked on major chip-and-PIN efforts expected to unfold over the next five to six years. Retailer Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. already has deployed some 5,000 payment terminals that accept EMV cards in its stores, Oliver Manahan, vice president, advanced payments, at MasterCard Canada, tells CardLine Global.
