U.S. based ATMs will have to take EMV cards by 19 April 2013

In my blog last month The U.S. moves towards EMV! Visa announces plans.... I finished with the question " I wonder when we will see a similar announcement from other card schemes?"  Now MasterCard has entered the arena.  According to an article in the Credit Union Times, MasterCard Worldwide spokesperson Seth Eisen has said that "U.S.-based ATMs will have to take EMV cards as of April 19, 2013."  It is stated that he offered additional clarification in an email:

“On September 1, MasterCard announced it will extend its existing EMV liability shift program for inter-regional Maestro ATM transactions, as part of an effort to align technology efforts to prevent and manage fraud.............The liability shift will cover both the United States and Asia-Pacific regions and will be effective on April 19, 2013, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand, where the liability shift will become effective on December 31, 2015. South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka) will continue to be excluded from the inter-regional ATM EMV liability shift program. It should be noted that liability shift already applies for Europe, Canada and the Middle East and Africa and will be completed for Latin America by end of October 2012.”

VISA seized the initiative on U.S. EMV last month, although there was a noticeable absence of anything relating to ATMs.  Now it looks as if MasterCard is attempting to regain the initiative with a stated deadline for U.S. ATMs.  19th April 2013 may seem like a long time away, but compliance will require super fast planning if U.S. ATM deployers want to comply by the deadline.  Non-compliance could be expensive, a lesson that was learned in Europe as liability for fraud losses was passed from EMV card issuers to the owners of non-EMV compliant ATMs. 

The MasterCard announcement is very good news for EMV card issuers!