News

Indian FIs offered an EMV alternative

November 26, 2013

The Reserve Bank of India has notified the country's banks that they may choose between issuing EMV chip-enabled bankcards or adopting biometric identification systems used with the government's Aadhaar social benefits program.

Aadhaar uses biometric data — such as a fingerprint or retina scan — captured by the Unique Identification Authority of India as protection against domestic counterfeit and lost-or-stolen card fraud, since the cardholder must be physically present at the ATM or POS terminal to authenticate the transaction.

"In respect of cards, not specifically mandated by the RBI to adopt EMV norms, banks may take a decision whether they should adopt Aadhaar as additional factor of authentication or move to EMV chip and PIN technology for securing the card present payment infrastructure," said an RBI statement cited by NDTV.

Though they will not be required to issue chip cards, banks are not entirely off the EMV hook — they must still provide the infrastructure to accept EMV transactions.

Read more about EMV.