Visa accelerates transition to EMV chip-enabled cards in the US

Visa implementing EMV-chip

Financial institutions in the United States have issued around one million Visa-branded, EMV chip-enabled cards since 31st December 2011. The card issuer initially outlined plans to accelerate the adoption of EMV contact and contactless chip technology in the US in its industry roadmap, released August 2011. 

Visa is deploying EMV chip-enabled cards with both signature and PIN card verification methods as well as “no signature required” so merchants can adopt the new system according to their (and their customer’s) preferences. Consumer EMV chip card programmes  are currently available at various financial institutions such as Chase Card Services, State Employees’ Credit Union, United National Federal Credit Union, US Bank and Wells Fargo. For issuers, Visa is introducing Visa Chip Services, a suite of solutions designed to help implement EMV chip payment programmes, including NFC-based mobile payments. 

The EMV chip improves the security of transactions by generating a unique code for every payment it makes. It can also be used for NFC mobile payments. Stephanie Ericksen, head of authentication product integration at Visa, predicts that “migrating the US market to chip will help build an infrastructure for accepting NFC mobile payments, enhance international acceptance and reduce fraud.”

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