Chip card fight may lead to new security measures

Massive data breaches have led to renewed debate about secure card technology and who should shoulder the costs of consumer fraud.

Driven in part by a deadline set by the card companies, banks and retailers are slowly gearing up to provide American consumers with a more secure option: credit and debit cards embedded with a microchip that generates a one-time security code to process every payment.

That means the data stored on merchants' servers from those transactions can't be used again, such as by fraudsters to create counterfeit cards. But banks and stores are still balking, concerned about cost and timing. "As long as I can remember EMV chips have probably been talked about every year," says Linda Echard, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America's Bancard division, which helps community banks get credit and debit card services.