News

Half of US POS terminals will be chip-enabled by end of 2015

Massive data breaches in the past year seem to have prodded retailers to take action to curb their potential exposure to losses from fraud.

October 21, 2014

According to the Payments Security Task Force, a cross-industry group formed by Visa and MasterCard, at least 47 percent of merchant terminals will be enabled for EMV chip technology by the end of next year.

The figure is based on forecasts by acquirers representing around 80 percent of purchase volume, including First Data, Citi, Wells Fargo and Global Payments. 

In October 2015, Visa and MasterCard will transfer liability for fraud to retailers who have not upgraded their hardware. 

Retailers initially reluctant to make the costly switch have begun to move toward EMV over the last year, jolted into action by a rash of massive data breaches originating at the POS terminal.

“Retailers, issuers, acquirers and others have addressed consumer concerns head-on and have begun to make the investments to further enhance the security of their payments," said Chris McWilton, president of North American markets at MasterCard.

In August, task force members representing nine financial services firms predicted that half of their cards — 575 million in all — will be chip-enabled by the end of 2015.