News

Kenya expects to be 70% EMV-compliant by month end

April 28, 2014

Last year Kenya's banking industry adopted the EMV standard for payments cards and set about implementing the plan in a phased program. Adhering to the plan, Kenya's ATMs were 100 percent compliant by September 2013; POS terminals achieved the December 2013 deadline, as well.

The KBA release said most banks have completed certification of their card management systems, and banks have started the card replacement process.

As of March 27, approximately 60 percent of the card base had been converted to chip and PIN. A number of banks have had to outsource their cards systems to third party processors due to the cost implications, while others had to procure completely new card management systems.  

KBA said it expected a situation in which approximately 70 percent of the card base will be EMV compliant by the end of April, and the remainder by the end of May.