EMV Chip Adoption Credited With 76% Drop in Card-Present Fraud
In a three-year period, the number of Visa cards with EMV chips rises 219%, according to Visa.
Payments fraud involving fake debit and credit cards has fallen by more than three-quarters over the past three years for many merchants, largely due to the adoption of the EMV chip, according to new data from Visa.
The card network reported that merchants who accepted chip cards saw 76% less card-present counterfeit payment fraud at the end of 2018 compared to September 2015. Between September 2015 and March 2019, the number of Visa cards with EMV chips rose 219%.
As of the end of March 2019, 509 million Visa chip cards were in circulation. More than 3.5 million merchant locations accepted chip cards, compared to just 392,000 in September 2015, Visa said.
“That’s a 771% increase since the beginning of EMV migration in the U.S.,” the company noted.
There were more EMV Visa debit cards in circulation than EMV Visa credit cards, however. According to the data, the number of EMV debit cards rose from 67 million in September 2015 to 303.9 million in March 2019, and the number of EMV credit cards rose from 93 million in September 2015 to 205.1 million in March 2019.
EMV chip transactions also increased dramatically since 2015. According to Visa, 99% of overall U.S. payment volume in March 2019 was on EMV cards.
“Swiping a card these days seems like a thing of the past as more EMV chip cards enter the wallets of U.S. cardholders,” Visa said.
As EMV approaches a saturation point in the U.S., many heads are now turning toward the transition to contactless payments.
Visa said it expected to issue more than 100 million contactless cards in the United States by the end of 2019. McLean, Virginia-based PenFed Credit Union will be part of that issuance wave; in January the credit union announced it would begin issuing contactless cards to members that month. The credit union, which has $24 billion in assets and about 1.7 million members, said it plans to give the cards to members when their old cards come up for renewal or replacement.
Visa also reported that 78 of its top 100 merchants by transactions in the United States already offered the ability to tap to pay at checkout.
At the end of 2018, more than 50% of transactions took place at merchants that have enabled contactless payments, according to data from the U.S. Payments Forum. The organization predicted that the transportation industry would lead the transition to contactless payments.