“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
The US EMV chip card statistics for October 2015 has recently been announced by Visa Inc. The first month’s data concerning EMV liability shift for POS or point-of-sale transactions shows EMV has growing success.
Current Market
According to a spokesperson for The Foster City, a card network based in CA, the current number of Visa-branded chip cards is 180.6 million in the US. 57% of these are credit cards, and the rest are prepaid and debit cards. The total number is 1/4 of Visa’s US card base, counting for about 720 million, which is up 18% in July.
Given another survey carried out in September, Visa states today 70% of Americans have at least 1 EMV card. As for merchants, 529.000 locations are now enabled to accept EMV cards in the US, which is up 49 percent since September.
Such major retailers as Target Corporation and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have become the most famous corporations with regard to EMV terminals. However, small businesses own the majority of the mentioned locations. The total number of locations accepting chip cards in the US counts for approximately 8 million.
With EMV adoption, the concern for fraud grew higher in the online sales channel, but merchants in the US market knew they could simply turn to emerchantbroker.com to find the best solutions to their business needs, high risk included. Opening a high risk merchant account with EMB, one of the leading payment processors in the field, merchants can enjoy not only cash advance, debit and credit card processing, but also offshore accounts and online shopping carts. EMB can help you reduce your chargebacks and fight credit card fraud with ease.
Encouraged By Results
Visa’s EMV charge volume counted for $8.9 billion in October, which is up 42% from September. Based on Visa’s operating statistics, Digital Transactions News gives the estimate of the October numbers represented about 4% of Visa’s combined credit and debit transactions amount for the month.
The spokesperson mentioned they were extremely encouraged by the numbers received. As he added, the latest numbers showed chip card issuance and merchant acceptance were on the rise. Moreover, chip-on-chip payment transaction volume grew by 42% in November.
Visa’s October 1 liability shift had its impact on counterfeiting. This means the merchant or card issuer, involved in a card payment transaction that doesn’t support EMV, is financially liable for any counterfeit fraud occurred as a result.
The higher level of security is very important to consumers. However, the new procedures required for the EMV use in stores seem annoying to some consumers. Also, they find these procedures to be more time consuming than magnetic-stripe payment transactions.
Merchants are looking forward to adding PIN authentication to EMV chip cards, and the majority of card issuers still prefer chip-and-signature authentication. According to payment experts, the EMV migration in the US is going to last for years. Moreover, it is still a controversial issue.