Instead of an official circular, SBP practically extends deadline for banks to convert magnetic stripe cards to EMV through a press release

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has categorically rejected media reports that the existing ATM cards with magnetic stripe have stopped working since December 31, 2019.

“SBP has not issued any such instruction to card issuers (banks/MFBs). Customers who have still not received their Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV-Chip and PIN) cards can continue using their existing magnetic stripe cards till the time they have received and activated their new cards. However, based on activation and delivery trends, the card issuers may block existing magnetic stripe cards to ensure complete migration to EMV (Chip and PIN) at a future date,” according to a statement issued by the central bank.

“We would like to recall that an SBP’s circular 9 of 2018 had advised all banks/MFBs to re-card their existing card portfolios to EMV chip and PIN by June 30, 2019. However, upon the request of the industry, the timeline was revised to December 31, 2019, vide circular 1 of 2019.”

Earlier this week, this scribe had reported that the last date for banks across Pakistan to switch from magnetic stripe cards to EMV compliant cards was 31st Dec 2019.

It was reported that the SBP had extended the deadline from June 30th to Dec 31st “as several banks had not made any significant headway in the process to replace old cards”.

It is pertinent to mention that SBP did not issue any circular with regard to a further extension in the deadline after Dec 31st. Also, despite repeated attempts to get some clarification, the SBP officials had remained unavailable to comment on the issue.