PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J. -- The new year will bring a new way to pay in-store for many U.S. consumers, with 600 million new EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip cards expected to reach their wallets and increasing acceptance of the cards at retail stores.
"2015 is set to be a milestone year as the U.S. accelerates its move to chip payments. As such, now is the time to start ramping up efforts to educate retailers, issuers, consumers and the media on chip technology, its security benefits and the changes to the payment process," said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum.
Commonly used globally in place of magnetic stripe, EMV chip technology helps to reduce card fraud in a face-to-face card-present environment; provides global interoperability; and enables safer transactions across contact and contactless channels. EMV implementation was initiated in the U.S. market in in 2011 and 2012 when American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa announced their roadmaps for supporting an EMV-based payments infrastructure.
Acquirer processor readiness mandates to support EMV were established for 2013, with liability shifts for managing fraud risk in a face-to-face environment set for 2015.
The EMV Migration Forum, based in Princeton Junction, N.J.-based, is a cross-industry body focused on supporting the EMV implementation steps required for global and regional payment networks, issuers, processors, merchants and consumers to help ensure a successful introduction of more secure EMV chip technology in the United States. The focus of the forum is to address topics that require some level of industry cooperation and/or coordination to migrate successfully to EMV technology in the United States.
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