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Study: TMG gauges FIs' EMV migration readiness

June 27, 2013

Payments processor The Members Group recently conducted a survey of its FI clients to help them benchmark their progress toward EMV migration. Only 37 percent of respondents said they planned migration to EMV cards before to October 2015, when Visa and MasterCard fraud liability shifts will take effect; 52 percent were undecided.

Sixty-two percent of survey respondents said they feel the need to develop an EMV strategy either to reduce fraud losses or to meet the liability shift deadlines. Nearly 14 percent cited travelers as the primary reason their financial institution is looking to issue EMV cards.

Chicago-based Alliant Credit Union has a significant number of members who travel internationally.

"While we are, of course, interested in the additional fraud protection promised by EMV, the primary driver for us is our member experience overseas," said Carolyn Hatten-Kissick, Alliant Credit Union senior manager of operations. "More kiosks and unmanned terminals in international locations are EMV-enabled, creating a significant challenge for mag-stripe cardholders. We want to give our members dependable, consistent access to their money."

When it comes to authentication format, chip-and-PIN was the winner (59 percent). However, 35 percent of respondents said they hadn't decided between formats.

Respondents were evenly split on the question of dual-interface cards. Of those who had made that decision, 45 percent said their cards would support both contact and contactless payment.

Read more about EMV.