Newsroom

Experts quoted in a MarketWatch article on Bank of America's implementation of chip-based debit cards note the chip – which uses EMV technology – is more difficult to replicate than magnetic strip but may not stop fraud.

The article said merchants need to shift to new payment terminals for the chip technology to work on the payment end. An EMV liability shift for financial institutions is set to occur in October 2015.

NAFCU supports technology that can better protect members' data, but not the liability shift, as it is only a requirement for financial institutions and not retailers. "Merchants still need to do their part to prevent data breaches – including modernizing terminals – and to be held accountable when breaches occur on their end," said NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler. "Financial institutions are held to a national standard for protecting data, but merchants aren't."

Many banks and credit unions are moving forward with chip-and-PIN technology, or EMV, as an added safety feature for consumers' financial information. In August, the Payments Security Task Force, of which NAFCU is a member, estimated that nine of the country's largest payment card issuers will have issued more than 575 million EMV payment cards by the end of 2015.

NAFCU is seeking legislative action to ensure all market participants bear their share of responsibility for data breaches. Many data breaches are the result of network intrusions occurring at the retailers' end – something EMV technology alone will not fix.

NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger urged House and Senate leaders Tuesday to create a bipartisan-bicameral working group to develop legislative responses to retailer data security breaches. Last week, he wrote President Obama to urge his support for national data security and breach notification standards for retailers.

National data security and breach notification standards for retailers are a key element of NAFCU's five-point plan for credit union regulatory relief.