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April 3, 2013 – MasterCard Inc. is giving ATM owners until April 19 to facilitate the use of computer chips for authenticating debit-card transactions for MasterCard-branded cards issued by overseas banks and used at U.S. ATMs.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the deadline, noting that the change is expected to affect about 1 percent of all U.S. ATM transactions, or "roughly 60 million swipes a year."

"If the ATMs aren't upgraded, the owners will be financially responsible for fraudulent transactions linked to those cards," WSJ reported. It quotes "industry experts" saying that even though withdrawals are usually limited to less than $1,000, "one sizeable fraud could wipe out the annual profits for a machine."

The report quotes one spokesman noting that counterfeit cards used at ATMs generated about $426 million in fraud in 2012. It also points to the recent arrest in New York of four men who allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars using counterfeit cards at local ATMs.

The article says current rules provide that debit-card issuers, not the ATM owners, are responsible for losses tied to fraud. It says MasterCard and Visa are pressing for the shift from stripe to chip authentication and have set a series of "rolling deadlines" through 2017 to make that happen.

• "MasterCard pins ATM fraud on owners,"Wall Street Journal, 4/1