NEW YORK — The U.S. payments system's march toward EMV is gaining steam, according to the Payments Security Task Force.
In a new forecast by the task force comprising a diverse group of U.S. electronic payment industry players, companies and organizations, including CUNA, nine of the country's largest payment card issuers who participate in the task force estimate that they will have issued more than 575 million chip-enabled payment cards by the end of next year.
The participating issuers include Bank of America Corp., Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover, Independent Community Bankers of America (representing issuing members), Navy Federal Credit Union, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo & Co.
"These numbers reflect the significant momentum behind the adoption of EMV chip in the United States," said Ryan McInerney, president of Visa Inc. of Foster City, Calif. "By the end of next year, these issuers estimate that one in two of their U.S. payment cards will be chip-enabled, which represents real progress given the scale and complexity of this overall effort."
'Real and Tangible'
Chris McWilton, president of North American Markets at MasterCard of Purchase, N.Y., described the move toward enhanced security for cardholders and merchants as "real and tangible. We're gaining alignment around the most significant challenges where the industry needs to have a common foundation."
With merchant readiness a concern, to promote Europay, MasterCard and Visa chip adoption, the task force is working to identify best practices around merchant testing and certification to help significantly reduce the testing and implementation time.
"The pace of EMV adoption is rapidly accelerating with many institutions already issuing EMV chip cards, and even more coming onboard every month," said Guy Chiarello, president of First Data Merchant Services Corp. of Melville, N.Y. "First Data is strongly encouraging all institutions to launch their EMV plans immediately and not wait for the October 2015 liability shift."
With the October 2015 Visa and MasterCard liability shift deadline getting closer, other sources have predicted that many financial institutions will be ready.
The big banks, which control a huge percentage of U.S. cards, will be responsible for much of the movement, according to Aite, which added that CUs and community banks aren't likely to convert as quickly.
"I have talked with a lot of credit unions recently, and I think less than half of all CUs will convert to EMV by the [October 2015] liability shift deadline," said Julie Conroy, research director for retail banking at Aite, in a June interview.
"Credit unions are all over the map," she said. "Some realize the exposure and don't want to get hammered with fraud costs, while others hope fraud is just a problem for the big financial institutions."
Aite's study found that the EMV-enabled card issuance process will ramp up in the fourth quarter, with eight of 18 issuers interviewed beginning general issuance to the public by the end of the year and three additional issuers beginning general issuance by the end of the first quarter.
