EMV in 2017

With the explosion of EMV technology for payment processing it is hard to keep track of what has been occurring. Businesses and consumers have lived with this new adoption for one year now. EMV standard has transformed the payment industry and we want to provide insight for your business as to what EMV looks like in 2017.

1. With the adoption of EMV standard, studies have been popping up regarding this new technology. Recently, studies have shown that by the end of 2017 EMV technology should increase by 98% due to laws that will come into play later down the road.

2. Many forget that EMV just came to be about a year ago, which also means not all aspects of the EMV technology will be perfect immediately. With that in mind, EMV has provided more benefits than downfalls, especially in regards to security. For instance, because of EMV’s unique transaction code it is much more difficult for thieves to replicate consumers’ identities than if they used the magnetic stripes. 2016 was just a transition year for 2017 and EMV can only improve with the new technological advances. There are always high and lows with any sort of new adoption, but according to statistics, security has improved tremendously due to different sets of encryption for each individual.

3. EMV stands for Euro, MasterCard, and Visa. Visa has stated that they have decided to postpone the U.S. domestic AFD (Automatic Fuel Dispenser) EMV activation date from October 1, 2017 to October 1, 2020, regarding gas pumps. They have also said that they “will monitor AFD fraud trends closely and work with merchants, acquirers, and issuers to help mitigate any potential counterfeit fraud exposure at AFDs. We will also continue to work with fuel merchants, certification vendors and software suppliers to ensure EMV chip migration efforts continue.”

4. According to Visa, “1.7 million+ merchants are now accepting chip cards” and this number is going to only increase in 2017, along with the years ahead that will provide improvements. 388 million Visa EMV chip cards have been issued in the United States and that number will also continue to grow. Lastly, Visa stated a “43 percent reduction of counterfeit fraud at chip-enabled merchants.”

Consumers have had one main critique when it comes to EMV adoption and it involves checkout lines. It is said that EMV has been causing longer waits in store locations. This is supposedly due to the card dipping, but this will start to change in 2017. As consumers become more comfortable and aware of how “card dipping” works, it will become a smoother process, thus reducing the long lines. Additional payment options will occur in the near future as well to aid in making the checking out process faster for the future.