• Ten Cities in Ten Days Kicks off at the Home of Target in Minnesota
  • U.S. Payments Industry Unprepared for Looming Liability Shift Deadline Says Academy
  • Thousands of Merchants, Acquirers, Processors and Card Issuers Lack Security Upgrades Needed, Exposing Their Systems to High Fraud Risk

The EMV Readiness Roadshows will make stops in:

Minneapolis, MN – September 21, 2015
Omaha, NE- September 22, 2015
Oklahoma City, OK – September 23, 2015
Little Rock, AK- September 24, 2015
New York City, NY – September 25, 2015
Dallas, TX – September 28, 2015
Seattle, WA – September 29, 2015
San Jose, CA – September 30, 2015
Los Angeles, CA – October 1, 2015
Phoenix, AZ – October 2, 2015

LOS ANGELES, California, August 31, 2015 — The U.S. banking and payments industry remains largely unprepared for the upcoming October 1, 2015 liability shift deadline – a point at which the responsibility for billions of dollars of U.S. credit and debit card fraud will fall squarely on those companies who have failed to update their systems to the more secure EMV chip technology.  Lack of adoption  is an extremely risky strategy for many American businesses and consumers. 18 months ago, top U.S. merchant Target suffered a major security breach when hackers were able to break into its payments system and access the personal information of more than 40 million American consumers. The cost of that security breach and subsequent card fraud is estimated at more than $145 million.

SCIL-EMV Academy, America’s EMV Migration experts, is urging issuers, acquirers, processors and merchants to take the liability shift deadline seriously by accelerating their EMV migration plans.  Education and training remain top of the EMV checklist. This is  especially critical for thousands of small, midsize, independent and community banks and credit unions, as well as many acquirer processors and merchants. Many of these organizations simply do not understand the added features and complexities of EMV making it tough to make informed and correct decisions. To alleviate this major risk, SCIL-EMV Academy is announcing a one time only EMV Readiness Roadshow Workshop, taking its core EMV Fundamentals class to the road to help prepare U.S. organizations for EMV chip migration. Included in this accelerated package is a FREE EMV Analyzer kit that includes a test card, a reader and a limited license software package enabling a real transaction to be processed and analyzed.

About the Workshop

The EMV Readiness workshop prepares card issuers, acquirers, processors and merchants to move seamlessly to an EMV chip-based system. The workshop covers concepts of EMV, its anti-fraud strategies, migration project plans and implementation techniques. The EMV concepts include  practical information on how to get devices and systems tested and certified in time for the liability shift date of October 2015. Mobile payments are based on EMV and will be explained during the workshop. Exclusive to the new EMV Readiness Roadshow, is the addition of a new EMV Analyzer package, provided to all attendees that will enable them to initiate real transactions that they can analyze in detail.

“Today, the American banking and payments industry is unprepared for the looming liability shift deadline,” noted Mansour Karimzadeh, CTO and Managing Director of SCIL-EMV Academy.

“Thousands of payment ecosystem stakeholders lack the knowledge about EMV and hence lack the skills and planning needed to update and conduct required security system upgrades making their systems a high security risk for fraudulent transactions.  Many of these stakeholders are small and mid size banks and merchants who may view the decision not to adopt EMV as a cost of doing business.  This is a risky proposition,” added Karimzedah. “EMV upgrades will reduce much of the increasing card fraud especially for counterfeit cards”.

One Time Only EMV Readiness Roadshow Workshop

The EMV Readiness Roadshow workshop will includes a 10 city tour, kicking off at the home of Target in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is followed by tour stops Omaha, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, and New York City as well as Dallas, Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles, Phoenix.  To register for a workshop or to download a course description for one of these locations click EMV Readiness Roadshow.

“Bundling the FREE EMV Analyzer for each attendee is a first anywhere and provides the ability to conduct real EMV transactions” said Stewart Chalmers, Executive Director of SCIL-EMV Academy, “Every transaction can be stepped through its different phases and at each step it can be analyzed, with data drill capability to further interrogate information related to that step of the transaction.”

“EMV migration affects all stakeholders in the payment ecosystem”, added Chalmers. “For a cost effective and on-time delivery of EMV migration projects, understanding what is involved is key to success.”

About SCIL-EMV Academy

SCIL-EMV Academy, America’s EMV migration experts, is the only U.S. based, independent EMV training and education and payments consultancy focused on contact, contactless and mobile NFC markets, with expertise in technology, EMV credit/debit smart card solutions, payment transaction processing systems, and mobile payments and enterprise security, addressing the payments, healthcare and transportation markets.  The Academy also provides access to the latest EMV products and technologies through its preferred partner network. The Academy is headquartered in New York City with offices in Los Angeles, California and Toronto, Canada.  To learn more or schedule and customize a workshop, visit www.securepaymentsacademy.com or contact [email protected].