UCPB to deactivate magnetic stripe cards August 1

State-owned United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) on Thursday announced it will deactivate close to 300,000 old magnetic stripe cards by August 1 as it encourages its cardholders to claim their EMV chip-equipped card.

In a statement, UCPB said its automated teller machine (ATM) cardholders have until the first day of next month to replace their old cards and claim the EMV-enabled cards at their respective branches, free of charge.

"We have around 600,000 cardholders and close to 50 percent have been issued EMV cards," UCPB vice president and head of marketing Charina Balanquit said in a text message.

"All EMV-equipped cards have been produced and waiting to be claimed by cardholders," she added.

EMV is the global standard for payment card security.

“The bank’s new Visa Debit Card provides our cardholders more security through the EMV chip,” said Balanquit.

She added that 97 percent of UCPB's machines can read EMV chips.

UCPB said it has completed the shift of its systems to be able to issue and process EMV chip-enabled cards in compliance with the mandate of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for all banking institutions to adopt the EMV technology for cards and card-accepting devices. — BM, GMA News