MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has instructed banks to shift from magnetic stripe based ATM and debit cards to EMV chip and Pin based model of cards to ensure protection of cards from cloning, skimming and other forms of frauds which can happen on a magnetic strip.In a notification released on Thursday, the central bank said, "While the POS terminal infrastructure in the country has been enabled to accept and process EMV Chip and PIN cards, the ATM infrastructure , on the whole, continues to process the card transactions based on data from the magnetic stripe. Contact Chip processing of EMV Chip and PIN cards at ATMs would enhance the safety and security of transactions at ATMs."The RBI also said that this kind of a move would also enhance the preparedness of banks for the proposed “EMV Liability Shift” for ATM transactions, as and when it comes into effect. It has instructed all banks as well as white label ATM operators to shift to the chip card based ATM models by September 30, 2017 and has mandated that all new ATMs to have this facility right from the inception.In order to ensure parity in card acceptance infrastructure banks have been mandated to install this facility even in their micro ATMs which are enabled to handle card based payments.With the gradual rise in thefts from ATMs and also increasing cases of fraud at POS terminals causing siphoning of funds from unsuspecting bank account holders the Reserve Bank has become extremely cautious about the ATM infrastructure and its security levels. In a speech few days back, even RBI Deputy Governor S.S. Mudhra complained that one third of the ATMs inspected in the country were not functioning.