Clients get more time to shift to EMV-ready cards

MANILA, Philippines - Banks are giving their clients more time to swap their old magnetic stripe ATM cards to cards equipped with the Europay-Mastercard-Visa (EMV) technology.

East West Banking Corp. has given its clients one more month to claim their debit card with EMV and payWave free of charge.

The Gotianun-led bank said it would destroy unclaimed replacement cards by May 31 and clients would be charged P150 for a replacement card.

The bank said customers unable to claim their EMV-ready cards could allow representatives to pick up the replacement card with valid authorization letter and original valid ID.

Furthermore, EastWest urged its clients to use their ATMs in the bank’s 580 ATMs nationwide.

“As banks migrate to the more secure EMV technology, there may be instances when your EMV-compliant EastWest Debit Card might not be accepted at other banks’ ATMs,” it said.

The interoperability issue is due to differences in phasing of implementation and approach taken by other banks.

“Better yet, instead of withdrawing, use your EastWest Debit Card to pay for purchases at any merchant that accepts Visa,” it said.

China Banking Corp. has issued an advisory informing clients that non-EMV ATM cards or those with magnetic stripe cards would be deactivated starting April 30.

“All non-EMV ATM cards can no longer be used in any ATM or POS terminal. Please get your free EMV-ready ATM card now from your branch of account,” China Bank stated in the advisory.

The bank’s ATM cards and machines have been EMV-ready since December and the deadline for the deactivation of magnetic stripe cards have been extended in January and in February.

EMV is a global security standard for payment transactions. An EMV chip card is therefore more secure than a magnetic- stripe card wherein stored information is static and can be copied with relative ease and cloned by fraudsters.