STRATEGIC PARTNERS
May 26, 2003
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- The Malaysian Electronic Payment System (MEPs) has extended its deadline for financial institutions to convert existing ATM cards to chip-based Bankcards to Sept. 30, according to a report in The Star.
The original deadline was June 30.
MEPS said the delay was to give customers sufficient time to change their cards.
By April 30, some 24 percent of Malaysia's 12 million cardholders had converted their magnetic stripe ATM cards to Bankcard, according to MEPS.
Effective Oct, 1, according to the Star, ATMs of financial institutions will no longer read magnetic stripe cards.
MEPS is the central coordination body for the implementation of Bankcard among the financial institution, vendors, alliances and merchants. It is wholly owned by the financial institutions.
According to an earlier Starreport, MEPS had planned to disable the magnetic strip reading function at ATMs by early July. (See related story Malaysia's ATMs to accept chip cards only by July)
Malaysian banks initiated the concept in 1998 because of concerns over large increases in card fraud. (See related stories Malaysians to get chip-based ATM cards in February and Card fraud grows in Malaysia)
