EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) is the new global standard for point of sale terminals and automated teller machines for authenticating credit and debit card transactions. This new standard defines the interaction between IC (integrated circuit or ‘chip’) cards and the processing services for those financial transactions.
This new standard becomes a requirement for merchants in the US in October, 2015. Along with it come new requirements for SuperSalon users in order to remain in compliance.
Card issuers are always trying to find ways to limit their exposure as it relates to fraudulent transactions. In Europe, since 1994, card companies have been issuing EMV (often called “chip & PIN”) cards that contain a chip in addition to the standard magnetic strip. At the time of an EMV authorization, a dynamic authentication process is used which enables a merchant to ensure that the card being used isn’t a clone created with someone’s stolen card information.
The goal in the US is to dramatically reduce the instances of fraud that occur as a result of cloned cards following a data breach. You may have heard of some recent breaches of top tier retailers where card track data was stolen during the breach. The theft of this particular data would enable a thief to recreate the actual card with functional magnetic stripe. With the dual authentication process used in EMV, this type of card cloning would be nearly impossible.
Currently, US card issuers are responsible for any losses incurred as a result of a fraudulent card being used in any merchant location. However, in October of this year, the liability for these losses will be shifting to merchants. In short, the shift indicates that if a chip card is presented to a merchant who doesn’t have the capability to read the chip (i.e. forcing the card to be swiped) and the transaction turns out to be fraudulent, the merchant will be responsible for the losses related to the fraud. To be clear, this industry change is not a law. It is a shift of responsibility for fraud from the card issuers to the merchants.
In the salon industry, this type of exposure could be incredibly detrimental to a business owner. We at Rogers Software Development believe that it is critical for you to be able to rely on us as an industry leader in providing the technologies that keep up with industry changes and enable you to protect your business. We hope you’ll take some time to research the new requirements and how they affect your business. As always, we are eager to hear from you if our staff can answer any questions.
We hope you’ll take some time to research the new requirements and how they affect your business. As always, we are eager to hear from you if our staff can answer any questions.