The Members Group is offering a downloadable white paper on what it says may be the inevitable demise of magnetic-stripe cards in favor of the EMV global payments standard.
"Chip-and-PIN technology to support EMV (Europay-Mastercard-VISA standard) exists or is very near existence in nearly every developed country in the world. And that's creating problems for the U.S., which has remained steadfast in its continued use of magnetic-stripe cards," writes the paper's author, TMG's vice president of client relations, Aris Jerahian.
"There are indications from several ends of the payments industry spectrum that U.S. adoption is considered likely-if not inevitable," Jerahian said.
The reasons, he said, include "the U.S. as the path of least resistance for fraudsters," the development of mag-stripe bridging technologies and the recent formation of an EMV forum by the Federal Reserve.
The white paper, titled "The Global Payments Standard - is Your FI Ready?", also includes a look at early EMV adopters, including TMG client United Nations FCU in New York.
Credit and debit solutions provider TMG is based in Des Moines, Iowa, and is a subsidiary of Affiliates Management Company, owned by Iowa credit unions.
