Excerpted from Creditcards.com
What is EMV
EMV – which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa is a global standard for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology used to authenticate chip-card transactions.
In the wake of numerous large-scale data breaches and increasing rates of counterfeit card fraud, U.S. card issuers are migrating to this new technology to protect consumers and reduce the costs of fraud.
As the U.S. payment industry transitions to EMV technology, there’s a lot to adjust to, starting with language.
For now the following terms all mean pretty much the same thing:
- Smart card
- Chip card
- Smart-chip card
- Chip-enabled smart card
- Chip-and-choice card (PIN or signature)
- EMV smart card
- EMV card
It’s that small, metallic square you’ll see on new cards. That’s a computer chip, and it’s what sets apart the new generation of cards.The magnetic stripes on traditional credit and debit cards store
unchanging data. Whoever accesses that data gains the sensitive card and cardholder information necessary to make purchases. That makes traditional cards prime targets for counterfeiters, who convert
stolen card data to cash.
Dave Witts, president of U.S. payment systems for Creditcall says, "unlike magnetic-stripe cards, every time an EMV card is used for payment, the card chip creates a unique transaction code that cannot be
used again. If a hacker stole the chip information from one specific point of sale, typical card duplication would never work "because the stolen transaction number created in that instance wouldn’t be
usable again and the card would just get denied".
More Next Week
-Bryan