SunTrust Moves to EMV

The bank said all new cards it issues will feature chip technology.

SunTrust today announced that all new consumer, business and commercial credit cards it issues will feature EMV technology.

The bank said it has started issuing chip cards for new card accounts and for existing cards as they expire in advance of the card industry's October 2015 transition to chip technology.

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.

"Protecting our clients' information is a responsibility we take very seriously," said Beverly Ladley, SunTrust's client segments and solutions executive in a statement. "Adding chip technology makes an already secure card even safer and provides our clients with an extra level of protection."

SunTrust is a member of the EMV Migration Forum, an independent, cross-industry body created by the Smart Card Alliance to address issues that require collaboration and coordination across constituents in the payments space to promote the migration to EMV for payment cards, devices, and terminals in the U.S.

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