Visa Inc. has kicked off a national awareness and education campaign with financial institutions and merchants to raise awareness about chip technology.
The campaign will support the next stage of EMV adoption in the U.S. by ensuring consumers and merchants have the information they need to use and accept chip cards, Visa said.
More than half of U.S. payment cards and large U.S. retailers are expected to activate chip technology by the end of next year, according to the company.
Although the implementation deadline is October 2015, some leaders who helped credit unions launch EMV chip-equipped payment cards have estimated that fewer than 50% of card-issuing cooperatives would have both EMV-equipped credit and debit cards ready in time.
"The adoption of chip technology has the potential to virtually eliminate counterfeit fraud when widely adopted, and will help consumers feel more confident about using their payment cards," Ellen Richey, chief enterprise risk officer at Visa, said.
Moving quickly to adopt technologies like chip cards, and digital account numbers or "tokens" in place of payment account data, will further protect personal account information by putting it in a form that if stolen, can't be used by criminals, she added.
In a study conducted by Visa, 52% of consumers and 84% of small- and medium-sized merchants said they were aware of chip technology and believed it will enhance security.
As part of the campaign, Visa launched a new microsite, Visachip.com, and plans to provide customizable marketing materials to more than 10,000 U.S. financial institutions.
In addition, Visa has partnered with organizations such as the Center for Democracy and Technology and Bloomberg Government, and plans to work with local chambers of commerce to invite industry-leading experts to participate in educational town hall sessions that include hands-on technology demonstrations in more than 20 markets across the country.
"We are fortunate in that we can benefit from the experience of other countries that have adopted chip technology," Richey said. "What they have shared with us is that the more education we provide, the more expedient and seamless the transition."
Visa's research highlighted consumer desire for further chip education. The study found that although 52% of consumers are aware of chip cards, 70% indicated a desire to learn more about how to use the cards (70%).
A third of cardholders who are aware of the security benefits of chip said they would be more willing to shop at a store that was equipped to accept chip cards, and 55% said they felt their personal and financial information is more secure when shopping at a chip-accepting store.
Chip is but one of several smart technologies Visa is leading the industry to adopt that will further strengthen the security of payments, the company said.
In September, Visa announced a new service that will secure consumer payments on new Apple devices and other mobile technologies.
By replacing sensitive payment account information found on plastic cards with a digital account number, consumers can make eCommerce or mobile payments without exposing personal account information, such as the 16-digit card number and other credentials, to the merchant.
In addition, other core security technologies provided by Visa, such as predictive fraud analytics, help monitor and detect fraud in real time, the company said.
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