House asks BSP to speed up mandatory upgrade of ATM cards

The chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on banks and financial intermediaries has asked the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to speed up the mandatory upgrade of automated teller machine (ATM) cards in light of reported skimming activities.

In a letter to BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. dated July 3, Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone urged the BSP and the Monetary Board to shorten the period for the banks’ migration to chip-based technology from the current magnetic stripe-based cards.

Evardone proposed that the deadline be set on Dec. 31 this year for the replacement of ATM cards with Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV) technology, instead of the current June 30, 2018 deadline.

He said criminals and syndicates have become more sophisticated in their skimming and other fraudulent activities leading to monetary losses for clients.

“Hence, unless the deadline for compliance is shortened, we fear that more bank clients will be victimized, to the prejudice of the national interest in general, and the banking industry in particular,” the letter read.

Evardone cited in particular the skimming activities that have been attempted on the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines and the commercial Banco de Oro.