The Metropolitan Banking and Trust Co. (Metrobank) is confident of completing the migration of its debit- and credit-card operations and become a Euro MasterCard Visa (EMV)-compliant institution within the time mandated by regulation, one of its senior officials said.
Mark Perez, Metrobank Retail Banking Group head, said the lender is making good progress in shifting from old-technology systems to the EMV standard mandated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as the year draws to a close.
He said all of the lender’s ATM machines have already upgraded to EMV-certified systems and in the process of acquiring individual card certifications.
“We already have certifications for MasterCard EMV acquiring. We are almost at the completion of the Visa EMV acquiring and we expect to complete the Bancnet acquiring sometime this November,” Perez said at the sidelines of its own event.
With roughly a million Metrobank credit cards in circulation, Perez said previously issued credit cards have been EMV-chip embedded since their release.
For debit cards, the public launch of upgraded cards will be announced at a later date this year.
“The cards are going to be available within the year. The expectation is that from an issuing, as well as from the acquiring perspective, we should be fine. In our case we already have cards that are certified,” Perez said.
The executive added it should only be a matter of time before the cards are in the hands of customers.
“Actually, most of the credit card companies [have complied]. It’s the banks, the debit cards that are playing catch up,” he said.
In a previous report, Bankers Association of the Philippines President Nestor Tan expressed apprehension over bank compliance to the mandatory migration.
Banks and other card-issuing financial institutions are expected to comply in full by January 2017.
EMV is the international standard for chip-based credit and debit transactions and considered more secure than the magnetic-strip technology previously used in bank-issued cards in the country.
Nevertheless, Metrobank remains confident the lender should make the deadline set by BSP.
“We’re doing our best. I’m sure we’ll be able to issue the cards already. We are ready in production as far as the cards are concerned. We should be fine. We should be aligned with the schedule,” Perez said.
Other lenders reported either to have wrapped up their migration or in transition to the new system include the Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO, China Banking Corporation, Security Bank and the United Coconut Planters Bank.