ATMIA has posted a response to a January 8 open letter by MasterCard, signed by North American Markets President Chris McWilton, that affirmed there would be no changes to the liability shifts set out in MasterCard’s EMV roadmap. The letter claims that a delay in the liability shift dates would “potentially increase the U.S.’s disproportionate share of the world’s fraud losses.”
“If wide-spread implementation by ATM acquirers and others is inhibited due to the lack of a generally acceptable debit solution, a liability shift has no impact on the level of fraud. It merely shifts those fraud losses from the card issuer to the ATM acquirer,” said David Tente, ATMIA USA Executive Director. “We urge MasterCard to support a debit solution with common governance by all member networks.”
A solution was proposed last year by the Debit Network Alliance (DNA) and discussed last month at a payments industry meeting hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank and the X9 Accredited Standards Committee. It provides significant flexibility in implementation; including the ATM. The consortium currently consists of ten regional debit networks, which equally share governance of the solution. It appears likely that the DNA solution could adapt easily to any changes that may come in the wake of federal appeals court decisions on the Federal Reserve Board implementation of Durbin rules.
“Because there are significant challenges that continue to delay progress on a generally acceptable solution, ATMIA encourages MasterCard to take a leadership role by joining the DNA,” said Tente. “Their support could be the breakthrough needed to accelerate progress toward EMV migration in the debit space.”
