Weekly EMV Industry News Roundup – 4 August 2016

Square’s Pricey Bet Pays Off as Merchants Pick Readers that Combine NFC + EMV

PaymentsSource

• The tough move from free to fee for its readers has Square adjusting its strategy to lure merchants, but it also opens the door wider to new markets, according to CEO Jack Dorsey.
• Dorsey did not provide investors with specifics on sales of its new mobile card reader, but did report anecdotal examples of growth, such as the Coachella music festival, where contactless "tap" payments increased to 11% from 1% the year before. In other reports, Square this spring claimed hundreds of thousands of sales of its NFC/EMV reader since last fall.

Creditcall and Elavon Add Unattended Certification to Suite of EMV Solutions for U.S. Merchants

Business Solutions

• Building upon the two companies’ European strategic partnership, the U.S. expansion will deliver the latest EMV technology to the self-service sector in addition to already deployed retail and restaurant point of sale (POS) and mobile POS (mPOS) EMV solutions

Visa Reports EMV Surge in the U.S.

IBS Intelligence

• Visa has reported statistics that indicate the amount of EMV-enabled cards has risen higher in the US than the country’s population. According to the firm, 326.8 million chip cards were used in June 2016. The uptick in usage is put down to the US adding more than 100,000 chip-enabled merchants during the month and also the increased amount of small and medium-sized businesses coming on board.
• Around 28% of the merchant population in the country is now EMV chip-enabled. In June 2016 one in four dollars spent on Visa cards was spent using a chip card in a compatible terminal. Visa reports that the total number of payments topped out at 483 million last month.

EMV Quick Chip Gets a Chance to Sway Merchants

PaymentsSource

• Visa announced Quick Chip four months ago, but until today the card brand has not had a place to showcase its faster EMV technology to merchants who feel burdened by the EMV payment process.
• With the New Leaf grocery store chain in the San Francisco area becoming the first retailer in the U.S. to use Quick Chip, as well as Mastercard's version called M/Chip Fast, Visa says it now has the perfect example for acquirers and processors to follow.