Chantilly, Virginia–August 10, 2015- Oberthur Technologies (OT), the leading global supplier of EMV products and the No. 1 provider of chip payment cards in the U.S., will field questions from credit and debit card issuers, merchants and consumers about EMV chip cards through a new blog titled: “Chip Cards Insider” (http://www.oberthur.com/emv/blog_post/ )

The blog, which launched August 7 – just two months before the card fraud liability shift in October – will address reader concerns leading up to the shift and beyond. OT will examine the role of EMV as a more secure way to address authentication, verification and authorization.

“The transition to chip cards is a complex and necessary step as we leverage the EMV standard to thwart hackers,” said Martin Ferenczi, President for North America at OT. “EMV is helping repair the chinks in the armor exposed to millions of Americans by the Target breach and others that followed. Chip card technology is an absolutely critical layer in a multi-layered approach to security that promises to drastically reduce card-present fraud.”

MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover announced the liability shift to encourage U.S. issuers and merchants to migrate from traditional magstripe cards to EMV which is a more secure global standard. Right now, issuers incur the cost of card-present counterfeit fraud in stores.  After October 2015, the institution with the lesser technology will be liable for fraudulent charges.  That means that if the merchant has not upgraded to EMV, they will have to pay for counterfeit fraud instead of the card issuer when a chip card is used.

OT has three certified EMV manufacturing and service facilities in the U.S. The U.S. facilities are part of a network of 7 manufacturing facilities and 40 personalization centers globally. The company serves clients in more than 140 countries.

Philip Andreae, who led the team at Europay that developed the standards for EMV, will oversee the blog. With 20-plus years of experience in the payments industry, Andreae, Vice President, Field Marketing, Financial Services Institutions, North America, currently provides OT clients an in-depth understanding of EMV and what it takes to introduce the technology in the U.S.

For more about EMV, visit www.oberthur.com/emv.

About Oberthur Technologies

OT is a world leader in digital security solutions for the mobility space. OT has always been at the heart of mobility, from the first smart cards to the latest contactless payment technologies which equip millions of smartphones. Present in the Payment, Telecommunications and Identity markets, OT offers end-to-end solutions in the Smart Transactions, Mobile Financial Services, Machine-to-Machine, Digital Identity and Transport & Access Control fields. OT employs over 6 400 employees worldwide, including 700 R&D people. With more than 50 sales offices across 5 continents and 1 manufacturing hub by region, OT’s international network serves clients in 140 countries. For more information: www.oberthur.com

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