American Express & Discover Join Visa in Delaying EMV Compliance

NATIONAL REPORT — Two more financial networks have signed off on pushing back the EMV liability shift at the pump.

On May 13, Discover agreed to extend the outdoor EMV compliance six months, from Oct. 16, 2020 to April 16, 2021. Citing economic and operational challenges driven by COVID-19, the company said the move gives fuel retailers more flexibility on installing new systems contact chip transactions at automated fuel dispensers (AFDs).

"With the current pandemic impacting merchants around the country, we looked at our mission to be a good partner, and believe that moving this date will ease the concerns for gas stations as they look to update their automated fuel dispensers," said Andrew Hopkins, senior vice president of global products and pricing at Discover. "EMV has significantly reduced counterfeit fraud and we encourage our merchants to continue their efforts to migrate their fuel dispensers to EMV."

Discover added it will continue to support the payments ecosystem through the migration to EMV payments by providing education, streamlining EMV terminal certification and promoting terminal self-certification programs.

In early May, American Express said it supported pushing back the compliance date to April 16, 2021.

"We have been speaking with fuel retailers and understand the challenges they are now facing in upgrading their AFD terminals because of the COVID-19 global health crisis. To aid them, we are extending the deadline to April 16, 2021," American Express wrote in an email to PetrolPlaza.

Discover and American Express join Visa Inc. in delaying EMV compliance at the pump for six months. On May 1, Visa became the first of the four major financial networks to agree to a postponement of the EMV shift deadline for AFDs to April 17, 2021, as Convenience Store News previously reported.

The delays came after NACS, on behalf of its retail members, sent several letters to the four major financial services networks outlining reasons for a pushback. The Merchant Advisory Group, Petroleum Marketers Association of America, NATSO and Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America joined in the request.