Metrobank a step ahead in ATM security features

By Jerry Maglunog 

An estimated 70 percent of the country’s 38 million credit and automated teller machine (ATM) cards may not be able to migrate to the Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) chip from the current magnetic strip in the next two years, which should be a cause of worry for an ATM or credit-card owner. 

First, their card can be intercepted when delivered at their address or the ever-present danger of hacking, according to Riko Abdurrahman, president of Metrobank Card Corp., one of the biggest credit-card issuers in the country.

Like the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Abdurrahman is one with the central bank when it comes to warning the public.

“The January 2017 deadline by the BSP is very crucial. These cards are in grave danger of being attacked by scammers and phishers,” was the official’s exact warning, delivered during the launching of the latest credit card of the bank two weeks ago.

Abdurrahman said that, this early, some foreign phishers and scammers are already in the Philippines because these people know that many banks will be unable to beat the deadline set by the central bank until they migrate to the fool-proof device on that date.

“They are here to do test operations probably. That’s why risk is very high for all cards that will not be EMV-ready,” the president of the corporation said.

The cost of migrating to the EMV technology from plain magnetic strip is the biggest reason many banks are perceived to be having hard time converting their cards into this globally-accepted technology in banking.

The Philippines is not alone, as the United States has many banks that are unlikely to convert their cards to EMV, presumed to be due to the same reason in the Philippines.

At least 80 percent is the probability of having the depositors’ money falling into a skimmer’s hand if the card is not EMV-equipped.

The version of the chip infused by most banks is at 1.6 points. The number pertains to the safety features the chip possesses.

The president said that, although having an EMV chip is not the total solution against skimmers, this technology has many safety features that prevent anyone from getting access to the in-formation embossed at the card, like depositors’ money and what terminal the owner frequently uses.

If the ATM or credit card is not EMV-powered, the de-vices used by phishers can help in stealing money.

“They put up a sort of friction board, so that the machine will not read the card. When the owner loses patience, he or she will just leave the terminal,” he said.

“That’s the time the phisher come in. The fric-tion board has the capac-ity to read the PIN num-ber, amount deposited and even last few transactions made,” Abdurrahman ex-plained.

It will make the stealing of money easier if the ATM machine used hasn’t upgrad-ed yet from the Windows 7 operating system.

According to the official, it’s a double whammy when the card is not yet EMV-en-abled and the terminal used hasn’t also moved to the next version. “The bottom line is unsafe. There is risk on the card, as well as the machine,” the official added.

EMV technology is also used when a bank asks for a one-time password each time an owner does online banking.

Since there is the possibility that not all banks will not be able to migrate, the phishing method is likely to go back to basics— via stealing the card from delivery or taking chances at any ATM terminal.

“That’s why we’re also instructing our delivery team not to leave to anybody in the house if the owner is not there. Only first-degree rel-atives are allowed to accept and the receiver must sign,” the official said.

There is no official word yet issued by the BSP regarding the penalties that banks may face if they fail to beat the January 2017 deadline.

At least four credit-card issuers have already con-firmed that they will com-plete the transition of their cards before the deadline set by the banking regulators in April 2014.

Peaches Cuenco, the corporation’s senior vice president and deputy cards head, said all the 13 types of Metrobank credit cards are now EMV-powered since May 2015.

“Since we are with the credit cards operations, we don’t know the status of ATMs,” she said.

At least 6.5 million credit cards in the Philippines are circulating in the Philippines 1.5 million of these are is-sued by Metrobank.