What is EMV

EMV brings powerful security for every transaction

EMV Cards are Proven to Reduce Fraud

EMV has been deployed in over 80 countries. Over and over, it has been shown to reduce counterfeit card fraud.

How does EMV prevent fraud? The chip is tamper-proof and nearly impossible to clone, making counterfeit card fraud extremely difficult. In addition, EMV cards generate a unique numeric code for every transaction, which means a would-be fraudster cannot use stolen account data to make fraudulent transactions at any merchant that requires an EMV card.

Countries that have implemented EMV have seen dramatic reductions in fraud from counterfeit cards and stolen cards, leading to overall fraud reduction, too.

What is EMV?

Simply put, EMV is a security standard for payment cards and mobile card payments.

Named for its founders (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa), EMV defines a set of security standards for credit and debit card transactions that can be used for NFC mobile payments, too. Commonly referred to as “EMV cards,” or “EMV credit cards,” these cards use a smart chip instead of a magnetic stripe to hold the data that is required to process a transaction.

A smart chip has the power of a small computer, allowing it to run applications that can perform advanced authentication. The chip’s processing power, along with its capacity to store more information than a magnetic stripe means that EMV cards can hold encrypted data, perform cryptography, and generate a unique code that is assigned to each transaction. This code is key to fighting fraud because it must be generated by the chip and cannot be used for more than one transaction.

It’s virtually impossible to make a counterfeit EMV card because the chip is extremely difficult to tamper with or clone, which has resulted in reduced counterfeit fraud wherever EMV has been implemented

The Chip

Why did the developers of EMV specify a smart card chip inside of every card? For one reason – security. A smart card chip is a small computer (or microprocessor) that has its own data storage, processing power, and application software. Unlike a magnetic stripe card, a chip is extremely difficult to crack.

A smart chip offers greater security because it contains a secure vault that holds unique keys specific to each card that protect your transactions.

A Unique Code for Each Transaction

EMV cards generate a unique code that is validated by your bank for each transaction, and the code cannot be re-used. A fraudster couldn’t make a transaction using a fake card with stolen data at an EMV terminal because it wouldn’t be able to generate the proper code

Advanced Cryptography

EMV security is based on strong cryptography which is used to generate the unique transaction codes that allow the terminal to authenticate the card. This cryptography is built on private key infrastructure, meaning that only a chip card that is personalized with the cardholder’s private key during manufacturing can generate a valid transaction

Share This