Tuesday 21 June 2011

EMV is working in Europe...EAST shares latest stats

The European ATM Security Team (EAST) has just published an update for the month of June.  It includes a chart which shows the impact of EMV on European ATM fraud migration.


Domestic issuer losses (losses committed inside national borders by criminals using stolen card details) have fallen by 63% from a high point of €62 million during the first six months of 2006, to a low of €23 million during the second six months of 2010.   Even when all ATMs are fully EMV compliant in EU-SEPA countries, fraudulent withdrawals can still take place because of the usage of  ’mag stripe only’ cards from non EMV card issuers, or because EMV card issuers authorize ‘mag stripe fall back’ transactions.

A big spike in international losses (losses committed outside national borders by criminals using stolen card details) occurred in 2007 when such losses increased by 201% from €93 million during the first six months of the year, to €280 million during the second six months.  In such cases counterfeit EU payment cards are used to make cash withdrawals in countries where all or some of the ATMs are not yet EMV compliant.  As long as 'mag stripes' are present on EMV cards, the cards are vulnerable to skimming.  International losses during the second half of 2010 were down by 64% from the highpoint in 2007, with losses of €100 million reported.

In addition to the impact of the EMV roll out, this fall in international losses can be also be attributed to the effectiveness of anti-skimming devices, where they have  been deployed, to improvements in the detection and monitoring of fraudulent transactions, and to regional card blocking for 'card present'  transactions.

Many EU countries are now reporting that losses in the United States are making up the largest percentage of international losses, where there are no known plans to migrate to EMV.  This is in line with the latest Organised Crime Threat Assessment published by Europol which states that around 80% of non-EU fraud against EU payment cards is committed in the United States.

Read the whole Update here or visit the EAST website to download the EAST ATM Fraud Analysis Report 2011 to which the Update refers.

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