BSP gives banks until January 2017 to switch to EMV chip ATM

In light of the recent series of ATM skimming, the Central Bank has reiterated its message for people to be careful when making withdrawals in Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. EMV cards have chips embedded inside them which contain information required to authenticate credit and debit card transactions.

The main advantage of EMV-based cards over its predecessor is the information on magnetic strip on the former is dynamic as opposed to static. This added level of complexity makes it more challenging for hackers and skimmers to copy the information on the card.

The Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas have mandated that all banks switch to the EMV chip on all their ATM cards before January 2017.