Bank of Israel Governor Prof.
Amir Yaron: “Increasing the maximum amount for a contactless transaction will
help accelerate the implementation of EMV technology at merchants during this
complex period, so that customers will be able to make transactions using more
secure and more rapid technology.”
As part of promoting the use of
advanced means of payment, and particularly the use of contactless transactions at
merchants, a uniform cardholder verification (CVM) limit was set at NIS 200,
above which contactless transactions made over the EMV
infrastructure required the customer to key in a PIN number. In order to
improve dealing with the corona pandemic, and in order to further reduce
contact when making payment transactions, the Bank of Israel has decided in
conjunction with the various actors in the payment card market, as part of the
payment card committee, to raise the limit to NIS 300. The limit will be
raised by the end of 2020, and the issue will be raised toward the end of the
period for further discussion within the payment card committee.
Accordingly, when making a
contactless transaction with a value lower than the limit, the customer will
not need to key in the card’s PIN number, and the transaction will be made by
holding the payment card in proximity to the smart terminal at a merchant that
has converted its acquiring system to one that operates using EMV
technology. A contactless transaction
will also be enabled through a smart cellular device supporting contactless
transaction functions.
This revised limit will be fixed
and uniform for all transactions made at merchants that have converted to EMV,
and will also be available for transactions made by tourists. This decision is similar to the decisions
made in various European countries to raise the limit.
As of today, about 85 percent of
all payment card transactions made at merchants are for amounts that do not
exceed NIS 300, and about 75 percent of them are below NIS 200.
In addition, in order to promote
contactless advanced payments above the CMV limit of NIS 300, when carrying out
contactless transactions using a smart cellular device, a second verification
may be made on the device in accordance with the verification minimum, for
instance using a code or biometric identifier.
The decision to raise the
verification limit comes in parallel to the agreement by some of the marketing
and pharmacy chains to accelerate the implementation of EMV during this
challenging period with the help of the payment card committee led by the Bank
of Israel. In our assessment, an increasing number of merchants will be
carrying out payment transactions using EMV technology in the near future.