News

Mastercard clarifies EMV policy rumors

September 7, 2011

According to the Credit Union Times, Aite Group Analyst Julie Conroy McNelley announced yesterday that she heard from multiple sources that, effective April 2013, MasterCard will require member bank ATMs to accept EMV cards.

“MasterCard is trying to take a market-leading position,” McNelley said. “The EMV freight train is picking up steam.”

In the Credit Union Times article, Mastercard Worldwide spokesperson Seth Eisen said the U.S.-based ATMs will have to take EMV cards as of April 19, 2013.
 
“We are continuing to collaborate with issuers on EMV in the U.S. We are collaborating on timelines,” Eisen said, who also indicated no firm decisions had been made.

Eisen offered further clarification in an email:

On September 1, MasterCard announced it will extend its existing EMV liability shift program for inter-regional Maestro ATM transactions, as part of an effort to align technology efforts to prevent and manage fraud.

The liability shift will cover both the United States and Asia-Pacific regions and will be effective on April 19, 2013, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand, where the liability shift will become effective on December 31, 2015. South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka) will continue to be excluded from the inter-regional ATM EMV liability shift program. It should be noted that liability shift already applies for Europe, Canada and the Middle East and Africa and will be completed for Latin America by end of October 2012.

For more information on this topic, please visit our EMV research center.