Newsroom

August 24, 2014

575M U.S. payment cards to feature EMV in 2015

Nine of the country's largest payment card issuers who participate in the Payments Security Task Force, of which NAFCU is a member, estimate that they will have issued more than 575 million EMV chip payment cards by the end of 2015, the taskforce forecasted Wednesday.

"The move toward enhanced security for cardholders and merchants is real and tangible," said Chris McWilton, president of North American Markets for MasterCard, in Wednesday's statement. "We're gaining alignment around the most significant challenges where the industry needs to have a common foundation."

The participating card issuers include Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover, Independent Community Bankers of America (representing issuing members), Navy Federal Credit Union, US Bank and Wells Fargo & Company.

The taskforce, which it says has focused on continuing the momentum of EMV chip implementation, is also working to identify best practices regarding merchant testing and certification to help reduce testing and implementation time. It also plans to provide regular updates on the card issuer forecast and expand the forecast to include perspectives on EMV chip terminalization from acquirers and merchants.

NAFCU believes that data security is the responsibility of all market participants and supports national data security standards.

The Payments Security Task Force was announced in March 2014 and includes a diverse group of participants in the U.S. electronic payments industry, including payment networks, banks, credit unions, retailers, point-of-sale device manufacturers and industry trade groups. Along with NAFCU and the issuers already mentioned, other members of the taskforce include: CUNA, First Data, Global Payments Inc., MasterCard, Shell, Subway, VeriFone and Visa.