EMV
EMV stands for Europay-MasterCard-Visa - a joint industry working group created to facilitate the introduction of chip technology into the international payment systems environment by developing joint specifications for chip cards and terminals for payment systems.

Banks have been advised to migrate from the current magnetic stripe cards to chip-based on the EMV standard to address the rising incidence of card fraud.
EMV serves as the global framework for chip card and terminal manufacturers worldwide.

Implementing EMV will ensure global interoperability and reduction of fraud at both the domestic and international levels.  This is also in line with Malaysia’s national direction for chip migration in the country.

The growing government support for smart card applications, the rising awareness of smart cards as an effective fraud prevention tool, and the demand for multi-application smart cards are the main drivers for smart card deployment in Malaysia.

ATM cards were the first to be converted to chip cards in line with the national chip migration effort.  From October 2003, all ATM machines only accept the chip-based Bankcard for which some banks charge an annual fee of RM8.

The deadline to convert all magnetic stripe credit cards to chip-based credit cards is end-2004 while the deadline for ensuring that all payment terminals are able to read chip cards is end-2005.

However, many banks have already begun to introduce smart credit cards and consequently deploying smart card reading terminals ahead of these deadlines.

Based on the present rate of chip migration in the country, Malaysia will become one of the fastest countries in Asia Pacific to successfully convert its payments systems to the EMV standard.

Back to Top | Next (What is a Smart Card? )