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The Chilean Financial Market Commission (CMF) has delayed by one year the elimination of coordinate cards as an authentication method for electronic payments and transfers, moving the deadline from 2025 to August 1, 2026.
The measure is part of Chile’s wider efforts to improve customer identification and combat fraud in online payments.
Coordinate cards, printed grids of codes used to verify transactions, have been common in Chile but are increasingly seen as insecure, as they can be stolen, copied or exploited through social engineering.
The CMF has said that it wants payment issuers to transition customers, particularly those reliant on printed tools, to more secure systems such as strong customer authentication (SCA).
The regulator has also postponed the introduction of mandatory SCA use cases so both measures take effect at the same time.
Raising standards
Chile is one of the few countries that is still using coordinate cards.
Belgium, for example, has employed similar chip-based authentication devices, but most markets have moved to more secure digital identity systems.
This has been the case with European countries such as Sweden and Estonia, but also Asian jurisdictions such as Singapore and South Korea.
The CMF stressed that financial institutions must maintain uninterrupted access for users during the changeover and keep them informed about new authentication methods.
It also urged customers to familiarise themselves with these tools and never to share passwords or security credentials.
The CMF’s latest intervention follows its announcement in June this year that established regulations on minimum security, registration and authentication standards for electronic payments, applying to banks, payment card issuers, money transfer support firms and supervised cooperatives.
In updating the rules in these areas, the regulator is seeking to provide clear guidelines for the definition and use of the various mechanisms through which electronic transactions are conducted.
