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December 01, 2016

Visa, MasterCard push EMV liability shift for gas pumps to 2020

Visa and MasterCard on Thursday announced they are pushing the EMV liability shift date for gasoline station pumps until Oct. 1, 2020, due largely to migration challenges.

Initially, both automated gasoline pumps ("automated fuel dispensers") and ATMs were scheduled to have a liability shift date of October 2017.

The decision was announced by the companies and reported yesterday in The Wall Street Journal.

In a blog post outlining the change, Visa said the gas pump segment was already given a longer implementation time to upgrade to chip because of the "complicated infrastructure and specialized technology required for fuel pumps." Retailers with physical point-of-sale terminals underwent the liability shift in October 2015.

Both companies said they would monitor fraud trends for transactions at gasoine pumps during this extended implementation time. Visa, in its blog post, said its own study shows fraud rates at automated pumps are "relatively low," about 1.3 percent of total U.S. payment fraud.

CreditCards.com recently noted that card fraud is becoming more popular at gas stations due to advances in skimming technology and the extra time fueling stations have to comply with EMV technology. Even last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that gas stations have been experiencing an "epidemic" of credit card fraud.

NAFCU has noted that the transition to EMV will not be enough to stop fraud by itself. The association continues to push for national data security standards for merchants – akin to the standards credit unions and other financial institutions already follow – such as those found in the "Data Security Act" (H.R. 2205/S. 961).