More merchants ready for #EMV chip cards

by TMG

by: Brandon Kuehl

A staggering number of EMV chip cards are expected to be delivered to the homes of American consumers over the coming months.

The International Card Manufacturers Association anticipates its U.S. and Canadian member companies will produce more than 1.5 billion payment cards in 2015. This breaks down to 60 percent magnetic-stripe and 40 percent chip. Of those chip cards, 89 percent – or more than 575 million – are going to American consumers.

In 2016, for the first time ever, chip card production will outpace that of magnetic-stripe, with chip expected to make up 55 percent of the nearly 2 billion payment cards forecast to be produced. This would result in nearly 9 million chip cards shipped to American consumers in 2016.

Additionally, total retailers reporting they will be equipped to support EMV chip transactions by the October 2015 liability shift deadline has increased by 650 percent. That’s according to technology consultancy Boston Retail Partners’ (BRPs’) latest survey. While this shows an increased focus on EMV, according to another recent survey, just 34 percent of merchants will be EMV-enabled by October.

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