BDO makes EMV card shift, to disable old magnetic stripe cards by Feb 1

MANILA, Philippines — Henry Sy-led BDO Unibank Incorporated (BDO) said that it has completed the initial shift to the Europay Mastercard VISA (EMV) chip-enabled debit card and will be deactivating the old ATM cards this February.

“By February 1, BDO would have completed the shift to the EMV Debit Card for its first batch of retail clients,” the bank said in a statement on January 25.

“As a result, the magnetic stripe currently found at the back of the old ATM debit card will be disabled, therefore clients will no longer be able to transact on any ATM and Point of Sale (PoS) terminal,” it added.

BDO noted however that magnet stripe debit cards for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and payroll account clients will not be deactivated at the end of the month as they have a seperate schedule for migration to the EMV cards.

The bank also encouraged customers who still have the magnetic stripe card to have it replaced at BDO branches on or before January 31.

BDO said that it started advising its clients to get their EMV Debit Card since it became available in the Q3 of 2016 and that all its ATMs nationwide were EMV-certified last year.  

Likewise, the bank pointed out that PoS terminals found in supermarkets, restaurants, shopping malls and other establishments are converting into EMV as well.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has required all banks to shift to EMV chip-compliant cards by June of this year for safety reasons as an EMV-enabled system is more secure than the traditional magnetic stripe found in most cards in the Philippines.

In June of last year, BDO was hit by another rush of ATM-skimming incidents which have also hit rivals like Bank of the Philippine Islands.

BDO is the country’s largest bank with 1,100 operating branches and over 3,600 ATMs nationwide. – Rappler.com