Philippine banks have joined forces to combat the worsening problem of fraud involving automated teller machine cards (ATM) and are working double time to fully replace the magnetic stripes with the so-called EMV chip technology by the end of 2016 as mandated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Sterling Bank of Asia president and chief executive officer Lamberto Villena said local banks will be coming up with a locally issued EMV chip card that can be made available to all domestic banks to replace magnetic stripe cards.
EMV (short for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) chip is the global standard for chip-based credit and debit transactions that is deemed more secure than magnetic stripe cards.
The Philippine EMV chip card will be helpful for banks that may not be accredited or certified by international issuers of the EMV cards.
Sterling Bank, the first domestic bank to release the locally issued Visa card with EMV chip, is involved in the BancNet task force on the migration to EMV chip cards with four universal banks.
?For banks like us that already have an arrangement with EMV chip card issuers like Visa, the accreditation or certification process will be easier. The problem will be for banks that do not pass the standards of Visa or Mastercard or other schemes. They are still required to shift to the technology,? Villena said.
Sterling Bank said it among the pilot banks for EMV testing in preparation for the migration.