More than half of US merchants unaware of the EMV liability shift

According to a study from Wells Fargo, only 49% of respondents, including small business owners who accept point-of-sale card payments, have declared they are aware of the fact that when a card issuer or merchant that does not support EMV chip card technology, it will assume liability for any fraudulent point-of-sale card transactions.

Financial institutions have been sending their customers new EMV chip-enabled credit and debit cards. These cards are designed to protect against fraudulent transactions by encoding cardholder information within an encrypted microchip and data that changes with each transaction. For the cards to work, merchants must convert to new card readers or add EMV capability to their existing magnetic stripe card reader payment terminals.

However, research shows that, with only three months remaining before the deadline, only 31% of small business owners said that their existing credit card processing system accepts chip-enabled cards. When asked if they plan to upgrade their point-of-sale credit card terminals to accept EMV chip cards, only 29% of respondents stated they would do so before the deadline. Results indicate that 34% said they will handle this at some point in the future after October 2015, while 21% mentioned they never plan to upgrade.