ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A panel of industry experts told ameeting of credit union card executives that cards outfitted withEMV smart chips are not likely to make any of their institutionsany money.

EMV standsfor Eurocard, MasterCard andVisa and is therecognized international standard for smart chips which areincluded on payment cards.

The meeting Friday was part of Card Services for Credit Unions'2013 annual conference at the Vinoy Renaissance. CSCU is the association ofcredit unions that process payments with FIS.

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Bastian Knoppers, senior vice president, Card Personalization,at FIS advised the executives that soon they would need to presenttheir boards of directors with proposals for switching their debitand credit card portfolios over from having cards with magneticstripes on their backs to cards having EMV chips embedded inthem.

Such a presentation was going to have to address questions aboutwhy, what, how, when and who, he told the group, and theirchallenge was that there is not a strong case for why.

“There is not a good-looking business case (for EMV), I canguarantee you that,” Knoppers told the group.

The problem, he said, is that absent a mandate from a governmentor from the major card brands, there is not really a strong casefor paying the additional costs for EMV cards, at least not for anentire card portfolio.

The cards will significantly cut the cost of one type of fraud –counterfeit card fraud – but not necessarily others, he said andthere is no other particularly compelling case for the change.

Cards enabled with EMV chips can cost between $2 and $4 more percard than cards with magnetic stripes.

Other executives on the panel, Kimberly Lawrence, head ofConsumer Product Strategy for Visa; Docia Myer, vice president withthe card manufacturer CPI, and Stephen Fedor, senior director withthe Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, agreed with Knoppers thatthere was a poor short term business case for EMV cards, but thatin the end they were a bit like fire insurance.

“Fire insurance is something we buy even though our house hasnever caught fire and we hope it will not,” said card consultantMike Bradley, a principal with Northcard who moderated thepanel.

“EMV is a way we need to protect our systems,” he said.