IBC Bank helps consumers better understand importance of the EMV chip card

            EAGLE PASS, TX (Sept. 27, 2016) – Late last year, Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV) chip credit and debit cards made a revolutionary entrance into the market, which enhanced the security and protection for consumers in a variety of ways. The new credit and debit cards are embedded with a microchip that provides an added layer of security for the consumer by generating a unique one-time use code per transaction, which isn’t the case with the standard magnetic strip. This code is virtually impossible to counterfeit and helps reduce in-store fraud.

“The new and improved cards have been issued to improve payment security, making it more difficult for fraudsters to counterfeit cards,” said Kevin Mullins, senior vice president of electronic services for IBC Bank. “This is an important step forward to protect the cardholders account.”

            Steps for using the EMV chip card are easy: Simply insert the chip end of your card into the terminal, keep the card in the reader throughout the transaction and follow the prompts on the screen. The terminal will let consumers know when it’s time to pull the card out of the reader. If the establishment doesn’t have an updated chip card-reader, consumers should swipe the card using the magnetic strip like they’ve done in the past. Since this is a newer security feature, retailers are still updating their systems. It is expected, however, that by the end of 2016 more than half of all merchants will have the EMV chip credit and debit card reader for consumers.

IBC Bank customers may request a new card with the EMV chip at their local branch. The EMV chip cards can be used at millions of places at home and globally where debit and credit cards are accepted.