EMV Technology In Credit and Debit Cards Reducing Counterfeit Fraud, Says Visa (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader cites an article on USA Today: The new chip-enabled cards flowing into the U.S. marketplace have already made a dent in fraud, with some of the biggest merchants seeing a dip of more than 18% in counterfeit transactions, according to Visa. Among the 25 merchants who were suffering the most instances of counterfeit fraud at the end of 2014, five that began processing credit and debit cards equipped with the new EMV technology saw those infractions fall 18.3% as of the final quarter of 2015, says Stephanie Ericksen, vice president of risk products at Visa. Meanwhile, five of those merchants who were not yet equipped to handle chip-enabled cards saw an increase in fraudulent transactions of 11.4%. "We're seeing EMV is having a positive impact on counterfeit fraud," Ericksen says. "Merchants who implement chip, their counterfeit fraud is going down, while those still finalizing plans, their counterfeit fraud is going up."Also from the report, "Visa on Tuesday also announced a software upgrade that will shave the amount of time spent on chip card transactions. With 'Quick Chip,' consumers can dip their chip cards into the terminal and withdraw it in two seconds or less, instead of waiting until their purchase is authorized. The consumer can 'put the card in the terminal and put it right back in your wallet and . . . move to get their coffee, or hamburger or start bagging their groceries,' Ericksen says. Ars Technica has more details.

Comments

Re:Welcome to the World

[Fnord666]

Most of the rest of the world has had EMV for about 10 years, often wondered why it never caught on sooner over there.

Because none of the parties involved in the transactions were losing enough to fraudulent transactions to justify the expense of implementing EMV across the ecosystem. It took a shift in the liability mandated by Visa and MasterCard to drive any real change.

WTF is EMV?

[Megane]

It would have been nice if TFS or TFA had explained what EMV is. I only this past month got my first chip card (I'm in the U.S.) and had never seen the acronym before.

And yes, it is annoying to have to leave the card in there for so long, not to mention the card slots that are placed where they are hard to see. Even more annoying is that before I got the chip, I basically was never asked to sign for amounts less than $50. Now I'm sometimes being asked to sign for smaller amounts. I don't mind the industry wanting more security, but maybe they could think about the user experience side of things a bit more?

Re:It's just so slow!

[Qzukk]

The old auths used to take us about 5 seconds, but now they take over 45 seconds.

The old auths used to take us about 30-45 seconds too, but the person didn't have to stand and stare at it their with their card in the machine, so it didn't feel like you were waiting 30 seconds.

It gave me a chance to put my card back in my wallet and my wallet back in my pocket before the cashier could try and shove the receipt into my occupied hands.

Inertia

[Solandri]

The country where something is developed first is saddled with a large installed base of the older tech. Countries which hop on the bandwagon later benefit from the experience of that trailblazer, and get the better tech right off the bat. Other examples include:

• African countries lead the world in ratio of cellular vs landline phones - they just skipped landlines almost entirely.
• Digital cell phones came to the U.S. last because the U.S. was first with analog cell phones - not only did U.S. companies have to build a digital cellular network, they had to transition all their analog customers to digital and dismantle the old analog network.
• Japan initially led the world in HDTV technology. The government pumped billions of dollars into R&D to insure the HDTV standard would be the Japanese standard. But their tech was based on analog broadcasts. In the mid-1990s, computer technology became advanced enough to allow real-time digital decompression of a HD-resolution video signal, and the U.S. leapfrogged Japan and set all the digital HDTV standards we use today.

Re:I'm more impressed

[Aighearach]

I don't really care that much about the theoretical security. I avoid this technology because it shifts liability onto me, that with swiping the card the old way rests with the bank.

I don't want to take on a smaller liability to save the bank from the larger old one. It isn't like the savings pass through to me.

Re:18% less fraud....

[Anonymous Coward]

Please share with us your list of merchants who are not passing the transaction fees on to the consumer.

Still, some are certainly paying more because of their credit card habits.

Re:I'm more impressed

[mjwx]

I don't really care that much about the theoretical security. I avoid this technology because it shifts liability onto me, that with swiping the card the old way rests with the bank.

I don't want to take on a smaller liability to save the bank from the larger old one. It isn't like the savings pass through to me.

Then fix your shitty government.

In Australia and Europe, the liability still rests with the bank. In fact merchants have gotten rid of swiping only terminals because it's the other way around (and should be) that the merchant can be liable for not having the updated terminals where as with Chip and Pin, the bank is liable.