Why Is India Moving to EMV Chip and Pin Cards by September 2015? Let's Discuss the Impact and Readiness

EMV Chip and Pin Card Implementation by RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has advised banks that, with effect from September 1, 2015, all new cards—debit and credit, domestic and international—issued by them should be EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) chip- and pin-based cards. The Reserve Bank has adopted a phased manner of implementing security and risk mitigation measures in card transactions, as evident from the instructions issued from time to time. The acceptance infrastructure is getting geared to accept EMV chip and pin cards.

However, in the case of card issuance, while some banks have already moved to EMV chip and pin card issuance, a large number of banks continue to issue magnetic stripe cards. Thus, given the level of readiness of the card acceptance infrastructure at the point of sale and also the implementation of PIN@POS for debit cards, the time is appropriate to move further along the path to migrate away from magnetic stripe-only cards to chip and pin cards.

Dear Sagar,

Thank you for the information. In addition to this, I would like to add the RBI notification for reference.

India's Position in Debit Card Frauds

India stands second in the number of debit card frauds. Only an alert customer can avoid getting into traps that result in money being lost and then having to deal with FIRs, complaints to banks, etc.

Recommended Tips to Prevent Card Frauds

- Tear or shred papers with bank account numbers instead of throwing them away.
- Avoid using unsecured or public computers for card transactions.
- Do not reply to emails asking for personal banking details or give away telephonic information when contacted by someone pretending to be your banker; no bank will ask for such information when everything is already on their records.
- Avoid writing down your PIN number; memorize it and never carry papers with the PIN written along with the card.
- Do not carry your card everywhere unless you are going to use it. Many people carry a range of cards in their purse, which can be risky.
- If you lose your purse, consider the amount of work and inconvenience you will have informing banks about the loss of credit cards/debit cards, etc.
- Once India moves over to chip and PIN-based cards, skimming incidents will dwindle.