The Philippines-based interbank network BancNet has chosen FIME, an EMV migration service provider for card payment schemes, to streamline the country’s migration to EMV chip cards.
BancNet will migrate all issuing and acquiring banks in the Philippines to EMV by January 2017. The Philippines has over 100 banks that serve more than 76 million banking customers.
Under the partnership, the EMV team of FIME will provide BancNet with consulting services to apply best practices for EMV to the migration process.
Additionally, FIME will launch a series of certification services and test tools that allow banks to verify compliance of their EMV cards and terminals, and confirm that acquirer host networks are implemented correctly.
It will also provide on-site services for member banks to allow fast and successful certification test projects.

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By GlobalDataFIME said that it will use Visa’s Card Specification VIS1.5 as the foundation for the migration and also support the domestic payment network in reviewing its terminal and banking host EMV specifications.
BancNet program manager Karen Ching said: "This is an important step for the Philippines to combat ATM and payment fraud by keeping pace with the regional trend towards EMV implementation."
FIME director of Asia-Pacific Arnaud Peninon said: "We are offering our experience to BancNet so that it can put in place the tools and services that the issuers and acquirers need to ensure efficient migration. We look forward to providing ongoing support as the network develops in the future."