11/08/2011

By Scott Thompson

Visa has announced plans to accelerate the migration to EMV contact and contactless chip technology in the US. It says that the adoption of dual-interface chip technology will help prepare the US payment infrastructure for the arrival of NFC-based mobile payments.

The company is laying out a dynamic authentication roadmap which it says will reduce fraud and enhance international acceptance. Ellen Richey, chief enterprise risk officer, comments on the Visa blog: “I’ve often been asked if the United States will ever adopt EMV chip technology as many other countries have. My response has been, it’s not a question of “whether” the United States will begin to use chip technology but “when” and “how.”

“For several years, Visa has been talking with clients and merchants on this subject – and now more than ever before, we’re hearing confirmation that chip is the right direction for the US Over the last year, for example, we’ve seen financial institutions issuing chip cards to international travelers. And some large merchants have already begun installing chip terminals,” she adds, concluding that: “We believe our program offers the right level of direction and encouragement for merchant and issuer adoption of chip - at the right time. With a commercial framework in place, our goal is to enhance security and support the next generation of payments.”