Communication from NCR Regarding EMV for NCR Counterpoint

The NCR Counterpoint and NCR Secure Pay teams have been working diligently to deliver a certified EMV acceptance solution for use in the field with NCR Counterpoint. The certifications by processors and card brands are taking longer than anticipated, given the multi-party complexity of the payment solutions, not just for the payment application employed by NCR Counterpoint for EMV support, but industry-wide. In short, there have been upstream industry-wide delays that have impacted NCR’s delivery of EMV capability to the NCR Counterpoint base.  

With the October 1st liability shift associated with EMV cards and fraudulent card-present transactions, there are a few important points to note: 

  • There are no regulations nor penalties by any financial or governing body regarding a merchant’s acceptance of EMV cards, before or after Oct 1st.
  • The change in liability for a merchant after Oct 1stis only present in the following scenario:
    • Card present transactions.
    • Card issued with EMV chip is presented by consumer, but cannot be accepted via chip reader, and is accepted via Mag Stripe Reader (MSR), or as manually entered card number into NCR Counterpoint.
    • The transaction is subsequently flagged as fraudulent to the issuing bank.
    • After Oct 1st, that transaction will result in a chargeback to the merchant for the amount associated with that fraudulent transaction.
    • The Oct 1st liability shift has no effect on liability associated with credit card breaches. PCI-DSS still governs the generally accepted procedures for protecting systems that store, process, or transmit cardholder data via PCI compliance.  

NCR and your NCR Counterpoint Certified Reseller are continuing to work with all necessary third parties to secure the EMV solution certifications. When certification is complete, we will begin preparing for deployment of the EMV-certified solution. Given the unanticipated delays in these processes, the release or deployment of the EMV-certified solution in a merchant location may not occur by Oct 1st.   That said, neither NCR nor your NCR Counterpoint Certified Reseller are a part of the EMV liability continuum as it pertains to fraudulent card use and EMV acceptance. Such continuum (and any resulting liability) is confined to the credit card issuer and the merchant.  

The following are some suggestions forways that a merchant can help to reduce potential liabilities associated with the shift until EMV acceptance can be put into practice:  

1) Institute photo identification checks when credit cards are used, possibly for transactions greater than a given amount. Because the liability shift only applies to card-present transactions, and only those for which EMV cards are presented, the primary liability for fraudulent card use will likely be from lost or stolen cards. Photo identification checks may reduce the opportunity for lost or stolen card fraud. 

2) Rent and use an EMV certified stand-beside/non-integrated payment terminal from your bank or merchant processor. Not all merchant processors have an EMV-certified stand-beside payment terminal, but several do. Check with them to see if one can be rented until such time as NCR Counterpoint’s solution has EMV certifications. Operationally, this will mean rekeying the amount from the NCR Counterpoint POS into the stand-beside unit for processing. 

3) Use an EMV-certified mobile payments solution. There are inexpensive mobile payments solutions that offer EMV-certified readers, which are generally inexpensive as well. While the processing rates may be higher, this may be a suitable stop-gap measure for your business. Operationally, this will mean rekeying the amount from NCR Counterpoint POS into the mobile payments device for processing.  

Note the above are suggestions only and shall not be interpreted as ensuring avoidance of liability. Additionally, please note that using electronic payment solutions not integrated to NCR Counterpoint will result in operational changes as it pertains to credit card settlement, reporting, and, in some cases, functional capabilities like validated returns or customer card on file.