Weekly EMV Industry News Roundup – 11 August 2016

U.S. Payments Forum updates minimum requirements for US EMV chip deployment

Finextra

• To help merchants and acquirers develop their strategies for implementation, payment network members of the U.S. Payments Forum (formerly the EMV Migration Forum) have updated the guide outlining their minimum requirements for chip deployment, including changes to incorporate requirements for the recently announced faster EMV solutions from American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa.

Why I love my European Chip Cards and Why Americans Should Embrace Them

Forbes

• Since moving to Luxembourg 13 years ago, I can’t remember using anything but chip cards – known here as E.M.V. for Europay, Mastercard and Visa – and it always feels to me so 90′s every time I travel to the U.S. and have to sign my now-illegible signature on a credit card purchase.

EMV chip card adoption has reached 88% since last year, according to Mastercard

Marketwatch

• MasterCard Inc. said on Wednesday 80% of its consumer credit cards in the U.S now have EMV chips, which the company said represents an 88% increase in chip card adoption since the last year's Oct. 1 chip card liability shift. The shift put the responsibility for fraud on merchants if customers have a chip card, but they don't use it. Chip cards, primarily when used with a pin number, are a more secure payment method than magnetic stripe. MasterCard also said it has 1.7 million chip-active merchants on its network, which would represent nearly 30% of the U.S. merchant population. MasterCard shares have dropped more than 2% in the year to date, underperforming the S&P 500 Index which is up more than 5%.