News

Card issuers pick up the pace of EMV promotion

Mentions of EMV charted a dramatic increase from 3 percent of estimated direct mail acquisition pieces in Q1 2014 to more than 33 percent in Q3, one monitoring company says.

November 18, 2014

Banks and other issuers are ratcheting up their promotion of EMV-enabled cards through customer communication and a shift in marketing messages, according to a news release fom Chicago-based Competiscan.

The company, which monitors targeted marketing communications, said that it has observed a dramatic increase in direct mail acquisition offers promoting EMV-enabled credit cards since the beginning of 2014, and it expects this trend to continue.

EMV mentions in direct mail acquisition pieces from issuers surged from less than 3 percent of all credit card estimated mail volume in the first quarter of 2014 to more than 33 percent in the third quarter, Competiscan said.

What's more, seven of the top 10 credit card direct mailers by estimated mail volume have begun promoting cards with EMV via direct mail this year. Competiscan data also found that credit card portfolios tied to travel rewards or targeted to frequent travelers have been among the first to be transitioned to EMV and continue to see the highest mail volumes by issuers.

Banks are taking steps to reissue debit card portfolios, data gathered by Competiscan said, citing Bank of America as the first major U.S. bank to announce a rollout of EMV capability for new and reissued consumer and small business debit cards.

"Unlike conversion to the metric system, complete migration from swipe-and-sign to the EMV chip-and-PIN credit card system will happen in the U.S.," said Richard Goldman, CEO and founder of Competiscan,. "The rash of large-scale theft of credit card data is all over the national headlines, and half the world's credit card fraud happens in America, so banks and issuers are taking this transition very seriously."