FinTech
Banks To Replace Swipes And Stripes Cards
The number of credit and debit card skimming incidents in Zimbabwe has been increasing on year to year basis at an alarming rate and the impact of cases reported in the past has been huge.
Visa set the path for the US payments industry to begin the shift to EMV® (which stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa) chip cards in 2011.One of the leading factors of encouraging the adoption of chip technology in 2015 was its effectiveness in reducing counterfeit fraud, which was the primary type of fraud in the United States at the time.
Speaking at the 2019 Monetary Policy Statement, Dr Mangudya said that all financial institutions are supposed to be compliant with this move and ensure that all cards issued EMV compliant by 31 March 2019.
EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, the credit card behemoths who dominate the sector and developed the global standard for chip-based security. EMV has come to represent every credit card with chip, even those issued by smaller companies.
Following the credit card scam incidents, the Central Bank directed all banks to introduce the EMV technology. The technology features payment instruments, such as cards and mobile phones with embedded microprocessor chips that store and protect cardholder data.
According to RBZ , currently over 80% of the card infrastructure in the country is now EMV compliant.
Before the introduction of the EMV technology, banks stored data on the magnetic strip on the back of the card which could easily be stolen using a skimmer.
Pardon has been a technology enthusiast his entire life and has spent the better part of last decades in information technology and security, and he writes with an aim to remove some of the "mysticism" from the cyber world. He’s the Editor at Techunzipped. Away from the keyboard, you're likely to find him playing with the latest gadgets or the latest Game.
