PHILIPPINE Savings Bank (PSBank) said it will deactivate its magnetic strip cards starting Sept. 1, as it fully shifts to Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) cards.

“All non-EMV PSBank cards can no longer be used beginning Sept. 1, 2017,” PSBank said in a statement.

“Clients should replace their non-EMV cards now at any PSBank branch. Replacement is free of charge,” it added.

PSBank, the thrift banking arm of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co, started to issue its EMV chip-enabled cards on Jan. 3.

It said that more than 600 of its automated teller machine (ATM) terminals are all EMV-ready.

In 2014, the Bankgo Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued Circular No. 859 or the Europay, Mastercard and Visa implementation guidelines, which imposes the EMV standard on local card-issuing firms, with the original deadline set last Jan. 1 this year. The deadline was extended to Jan. 1, 2018.

The EMV card system is currently the international standard as it is deemed more secure compared to the magnetic strip cards which are prone to skimming – usually done by illegally tapping into automated teller machine (ATM) terminals to steal client data.

There are around 76 million debit and prepaid cards in the country, alongside 8.5 million credit cards, according to the central bank.

Banks also operate 19,084 ATMs nationwide. The regulator also told lenders to take extra steps to invite cardholders to turn in their old cards and have these upgraded to EMV-equipped ones.

The central bank also warned that non-compliance with its tighter EMV guidelines would be considered a “serious offense” that would warrant penalties from the regulator.

In the first half, PSBank’s net profit was P1.18 billion, up 2% from a year earlier.

PSBank closed at P88.2 on Friday, gaining five centavos or 0.06%. – Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

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