EMV may finally be catching on in the United States

It was just about 2 ½ years ago that the switch away from magnetic stripes to EMV chips began here in the US. The transition was not easy. Merchants did not want to purchase new equipment and there was a lot of confusion that came about. Customers were unsure how to use their new cards presenting awkward or slow checkout situations. Well, 2 ½ years after the mandated liability shift it seems that Americans are catching on.

In the US 785 million EMV cards in total are in use with around 60% of cards in use being EMV cards completing nearly 40% of all transactions. Since the liability shift this has nearly doubled in usage. As of December 2017 nearly ⅔ of all Visa cards in US circulation were EMV cards, or around 490 million cards. 96% of all transactions were carried out using an EMV card for a total of 1.5 billion transactions and $78 billion.

Since the liability shift the amount of money lost due to credit card fraud has dropped by 70%. 2017 was the first year in which online credit card fraud surpassed physical fraud so the EMV cards are working as intended. Of course the rest of the world already new this.

The EMV card has already taken off through the rest of the world. Nearly every transaction completed in Europe, Africa, Canada, South America, Central America and the former Soviet Union countries are done with EMV cards. Only the US, India, southeast Asia and Australia lag behind. There are over 6 billion EMV cards in circulation worldwide so it seems that were are finally catching up to the rest of the world.

At JLE Business Consultants we know that the transition was not easy nor was it smooth in many cases. There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered and a lot of frustration that came along with that. We hope now nearly three years after the liability shift has been implemented that you and your customers are finally on board with the EMV cards and that business has returned to normal.