Six months after the EMV card fraud liability shift, more than four in 10 retailers have not updated terminals in any of their stores, and an additional quarter of retailers have completed updates of less than half of their terminals, according to a survey by the website CardHub. Only about one-third of retailers have fully or nearly finished upgrading card terminals.
Even at retail chains that have experienced a card data breach in the past five years, 43 percent have not yet implemented the more secure EMV technology. According to CardHub, these stores include major retail names such as Costco, Kmart, Albertsons, Staples and Neiman Marcus.
However, many consumers continue to be unaware of the security benefits chip technology provides. More than half of respondents to a CardHub poll said they don’t care if store terminals are chip-enabled, and just 4 percent said it would be a decisive factor in whether they would shop there. Additionally, 12 percent of customers said a chip offers no additional protections over a magnetic stripe, and half of customers said they didn’t know which was safer. Six in 10 respondents said they had received a chip card in the past year.
The American Bankers Association continues to offer materials to help bankers educate their customers on chip card use and security benefits, including a chip card infographic and talking points at aba.com/PRtools.
