70 Percent of U.S. Credit Cards to Include EMV Chips by 2015

By Wayne Rash  |  Posted 2014-06-16

NEWS ANALYSIS: A new report shows up to 70 percent of U.S. credit cards will have EMV chips by 2015. But merchants must convert POS terminals and train staff to use them.

The good news for companies that accept credit cards is that most banks will be issuing credit cards with EMV chips well before the coming liability shift in October 2015.

The bad news is that merchants that don't accept EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) chips will have to absorb the cost of fraudulent transactions due to counterfeit credit cards.

Previously, banks had absorbed those costs. EMV chips are microprocessors embedded in cards that make counterfeiting the cards virtually impossible.

That means that companies that accept credit cards at point-of-sale (POS) terminals will have to either buy new terminals or they'll have to enable the EMV chip readers on the terminals they already have.

The surprising news is that the majority of card issuers will use chip-and-signature cards rather than chip-and-PIN cards. Chip and signature cards protect against counterfeit credit and debit cards, but not against fraudulent use of lost or stolen cards.   Continue Reading >>>  70 Percent of U.S. Credit Cards to Include EMV Chips by 2015