American Express Rolls Out EMV Cards for Corporate Clients

American Express announced it will begin issuing EMV cards to its U.S. corporate card holders, beginning with the premium card portfolios in the first half of 2013.

EMV, the global technology standard for credit and debit card payments named after its original developers (Europay, MasterCard and Visa), features cards with embedded microprocessor chips that store and protect encrypted account user data, in contrast to the magnetic strip cards now used mostly in the U.S.

American Express, along with MasterCard and Visa, have all announced roadmaps for EMV adoption in the United States.

American Express has said that beginning October 2013 merchants will be eligible to receive relief from PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) reporting requirements if the merchants' point-of-sale (POS) acceptance locations -- where at least 75 percent of their transactions occur -- are enabled to process American Express EMV chip-based contact and contactless transactions.

American Express also said it will institute a Fraud Liability Shift (FLS) policy, effective October 2015, that will transfer liability for certain types of fraudulent transactions away from the party that has the most secure form of EMV technology.

[Related: Early EMV Compliance Benefits U.S. Merchants]

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio