More than half of credit unions will miss a key October 2015 deadline that requires credit cards to be equipped with EMV chips, according to executives with major payment processing organizations.
This means a majority of credit union credit card programs will not qualify for liability relief from card fraud losses.
"Credit unions are definitely gearing up and picking up the pace," said Barney Moore, manager of card consulting services for CSCU, an association of credit unions affiliated with payment processor FIS. "But it seems unlikely that they will have gotten it done by next October."
Moore cited concerns about costs, delays in ironing out technical details and bottlenecks among plastic card suppliers as reasons credit unions could miss the deadline.
"We are urging credit unions that might not be ready to pull the trigger to at least get the project started and get into a queue for a chance to get EMV cards," Moore said. He also said the costs of EMV embedded cards were running "double or more than double" the costs of payment cards with only a magnetic stripe. The costs are even higher for cards that include contactless technology in their chips.
Moore reported that, as of Aug. 1, roughly 2% of CSCU's 2,600 member credit unions had either completed their EMV conversions or were well along in the process.
Executives with other card processing CUSOs reported a larger percentage of their member credit unions have progressed toward issuing EMV equipped credit cards. However, those organizations also work with fewer institutions.
Oct.15 marks the date when the card brands have said liability for card fraud losses will shift to the party that has not put EMV technology in place. This means that the party, either the issuer or merchant, who does not support EMV, assumes liability for counterfeit card transactions.
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