Is Your Favorite ATM Chip Enabled?

by | September 13th, 2016

Cybersecurity is the biggest risk in the financial services industry, with hackers targeting banks more than ever before.Everyone enjoys the convenience of ATM’s. You can find these handy cash dispensing machines nearly everywhere – airports, supermarkets, parking lots, movie theaters, malls – you name it. If you need quick cash one of the nearly 400,000 machines is certain to be nearby. However, as Maria LaMagna reports for MarketWatch, your favorite machine may soon disappear. She writes “…you might be forced to use your bank’s ATM more often: There may be fewer third-party ATMs at places like bodegas, restaurants and bars”.

The reason? Chip enabled cards. Lamagna explains “Starting in October, MasterCard (MA)  will no longer take financial responsibility for counterfeit charges on MasterCard debit and credit cards, if the fraud occurred because a card was compromised on an ATM that is not upgraded to work with EMV or chip-enabled cards.”

This will force independent ATM machines to either upgrade to chip technology, or businesses that have the non enabled ATMs on their premises run the risk of the liability. Olga Kharif and Brooke Fox note that “Up to 10 percent of so-called retail ATMs — those not owned by banks — may be thrown out instead of souped up or replaced because of the move to chip cards”. Independent ATMs account for nearly 50% of all ATMs in the country and many are marginal in their profits. If an ATM owner needs to upgrade a machine that isn’t profitable at a cost that could reach into the thousands of dollars, it could end up in the scrap yard.

Remember where those coin operated telephone booths used to be? Your favorite ATM could soon be another vacant space.  This means of course that your favorite pub may have the cash machine removed, making your life (and fun) more difficult. Enjoy them while you can.

Sources

Kharif, O. and Fox, B. (2016). ATMs at the bar or corner store could soon go away as chip cards loom. Retrieved from the Internet at:  http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0716/ATMs_disappear.php3#yHei6xcXuXKMCWGw.99

LaMagna, M. (2016). Why that scuzzy ATM in the back of your favorite dive bar is about to disappear.  Retrieved from the Internet at http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/why-that-scuzzy-atm-in-the-back-of-your-favorite-dive-bar-is-about-to-disappear/ar-AAiKzFb?li=BBnb4R7&ocid=SNYDHP