Beginning in October, First Tennessee Bank will begin introducing chip-enabled technology on its credit, debit and prepaid cards to offer customers enhanced security against fraud. EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) chip cards are more difficult to counterfeit when used at chip-enabled terminals. First Tennessee is a subsidiary of First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN).
EMV chip cards use an embedded microchip to turn cardholder information into a unique code that is difficult to duplicate. This chip technology has been successfully used internationally for many years and has become a worldwide standard for card security.
First Tennessee's rollout of the EMV chip cards begins in October with credit cards, followed by debit cards in January and then prepaid cards. At no cost to customers, existing magnetic-stripe cards will be replaced with EMV chips cards when they expire or when a replacement card is requested. Instead of swiping the EMV card, the customer will insert it into the reader and keep it there until the transaction is completed. New cards will also have a magnetic stripe so customers can still swipe their cards if an EMV-enabled terminal is not present. Many national retailers have already installed the new terminals.
"Security breaches at national retailers have put customer information at risk and inconvenienced customers who have to replace their cards," said Dave Miller, head of consumer banking at First Tennessee. "The chip-enabled cards will offer an extra layer of protection for customer data. First Tennessee is working hard to stay ahead of fraudsters and protect customers."