New terminals can accept credit and debit cards with embedded digital chips, a security feature intended to reduce the number of fraudulent purchases, but before the payment systems can work, they must be certified. Many retailers around the country are waiting for this process to happen and they say that the cost of waiting is piling up, the New York Times reported today. Until recently, banks covered much of the cost of fraudulent purchases. Since Oct. 1, though, merchants that cannot accept chip cards have had to shoulder the cost of fraud, and banks have not been shy about passing along the bill. The long delays are just the latest black eye for the deployment of the new systems. Some consumers have not yet received new cards. Many merchants have not bought the updated equipment. And even when the cards and the terminals have been updated, they have generated confusion and slow lines. Many of the complications were widely predicted, but the certification system has added an unexpected wrinkle — and lots of finger-pointing.
