Visa pushes for the adoption of EMV chips to address the security concerns of Indians about credit card transactions.
Today, you can do mundane chores like pay your electricity bills while holidaying in Paris, or order the DVD of a blockbuster movie or your favourite novelist’s latest bestseller before it hits the nearest store. Planning holidays is a cakewalk, too—convincing your boss to give you one may be another matter though. The best airfare deals, the most exotic luxury resorts and the best shopping trips are just a click of the mouse or the swipe of a card away. With more and more websites promising to deliver your heart’s desire to your doorstep and debit cards being accepted in grocery stores, e-commerce in India is here to stay (already, debit and credit transactions worth over Rs 73,000 crore take place annually). But if you are like most people, you’ve probably often wondered how safe, exactly, are your net transactions.
Typically, credit and debit card users encounter two levels of authentication check when making an online payment. The first stage is the CVV number, which appears on the reverse of the card, while the second stage is a password. The objective is very simple—even if someone has your credit card details, the online transaction won’t go through without some additional information.
This isn’t nearly enough, according to Ellen Richey, Chief Enterprise Risk Officer, Visa. She believes India needs to adopt the EMV chip—fast. This is a payment card that has a microprocessor inside it that holds all the information to facilitate the transaction going through. The EMV chip is today being acknowledged as a far more secure way of making a payment compared to the debit or credit card with the more conventional magnetic strip. EMV chips carry credentials that cannot be accessed by an unauthorised party. When the card is presented for payment, these security credentials are encoded. In the more conventional magnetic card, information can be duplicated by accessing the details. That is not possible in an EMV chip. It is estimated that there are over a billion EMV-compliant cards globally.
In India, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have launched the EMV chip card, but mostly for very high-end users. The sooner it gets wider usage, the better. The Indian market is dominated by debit cards, and one false swipe (or a lurking phisher) the next time you pay your bill online could see your bank account being swept clean.
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