U.S. not planning on implementing chip and pin technology
Oct 3, 2009 | 12:14 pm
#1
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U.S. not planning on implementing chip and pin technology
Interesting article in the travel section of the New York Times on chip and pin technology. While Canada joins a long list of countries implementing it, the U.S. wants no part of it.
rest of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/tr...pagewanted=all
Twenty-two countries, including much of Europe, Mexico, Brazil and Japan, have adopted the technology, according to the Smart Card Alliance, a nonprofit association that promotes chip cards. About 50 other countries are in various stages of migrating to the technology in the next two years, including China, India and most of Latin America, according to the association.
In the last year, Canada began rolling out chip-and-PIN cards and plans to stop accepting magnetic stripe debit cards at A.T.M.s after 2012 and at point-of-sale terminals after 2015.
These governments like the cards because they reduce fraud. With an embedded microcontroller, large amounts of data can be stored on the card itself rather than in a central database, and counterfeiting such a card is difficult.
But the United States banking industry has no immediate plans to adopt the technology. Part of the reason, experts say, is that fraud issues havent been as prevalent here as in other countries.
The expense of converting the country to chip-and-PIN technology is also a deterrent. Javelin Strategy and Research, a consulting company for the financial services industry, has estimated the cost for the United States to migrate to the technology at $5.5 billion, mainly for new payment terminals an expense that neither retailers nor banks want to shoulder.
In the last year, Canada began rolling out chip-and-PIN cards and plans to stop accepting magnetic stripe debit cards at A.T.M.s after 2012 and at point-of-sale terminals after 2015.
These governments like the cards because they reduce fraud. With an embedded microcontroller, large amounts of data can be stored on the card itself rather than in a central database, and counterfeiting such a card is difficult.
But the United States banking industry has no immediate plans to adopt the technology. Part of the reason, experts say, is that fraud issues havent been as prevalent here as in other countries.
The expense of converting the country to chip-and-PIN technology is also a deterrent. Javelin Strategy and Research, a consulting company for the financial services industry, has estimated the cost for the United States to migrate to the technology at $5.5 billion, mainly for new payment terminals an expense that neither retailers nor banks want to shoulder.
Oct 3, 2009 | 7:20 pm
#2
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In other countries such as France, Switzerland and UK, where the credit cards are all SmartCards, their ATMs still accept the US meg cards for cash withdrawal. At least that was our experiences through out 2008.
I wonder if Canada would really stop accept meg cards for ATM use effective 2012?
Also it has been discussed in this forum, that in some vending machines (train stations for example), when a PIN is required, one can just punch in virtually anything and the transaction would go thru with the meg card, prompting the user to think, Is the Smartcard really more secured?!
I wonder if Canada would really stop accept meg cards for ATM use effective 2012?
Also it has been discussed in this forum, that in some vending machines (train stations for example), when a PIN is required, one can just punch in virtually anything and the transaction would go thru with the meg card, prompting the user to think, Is the Smartcard really more secured?!
Last edited by Happy; Oct 3, 2009 at 7:28 pm
