Almost 155 million debit cards reportedly went out of the market due to the migration from magnetic strip debit cards to EMV-based debit cards

With the introduction of EMV chip cards, the ATMs have been upgraded too in order to make use of the upgraded security features of new debit cards.

Once the December-31 deadline ends, all private as well as public banks, in line with the RBI mandate, will deactivate all magstripe credit and debit cards from January 1, 2019.

Some SBI account holders are receiving messages from the bank stating that their debit cards have been blocked permanently. The reason behind the blockade is that the bank has decided to replace Magstripe Debit Cards with EVM Chip debit cards for security reasons.

A senior ICICI Bank official told Mail Today that earlier chip-based cards were given mainly to high networth individuals as they were more likely to be targeted fraudsters because of their high credit limits.

With stock markets on an upswing in the past month, there are signs of the effect rubbing on to the primary market as well.