EMV: Much Done, Much More To Do

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

January 2017 Innovative Retail Technologies

As we head into year two of them great EMV migration, here’s a look at where we’ve been — and where EMV will take us next.

Depending on whose numbers you trust, it’s estimated that somewhere between 35 and 45 percent of merchants are now EMVenabled. Visa and MasterCard report that some 50 percent of the cards issued in the U.S. are now chip cards. Steve Cole, senior product manager for security and fraud solutions at Vantiv, says the general retail, supermarket, and drugstore verticals are leading the charge. “These segments had the largest exposure to the card brands’ counterfeit liability shift, as they sell goods like gift cards that are highly sought after by the criminal element,” says Cole. Table-service restaurants, he says, are still lagging behind due to a lack of pay-at-the-table traction in the U.S. “There is also a mistaken belief in the market that tip adjustments can’t be made on EMV transactions. In general, this is not true,” says Cole. “MasterCard does have a rule that adjustments can’t be made on chip-and-PIN transactions, but they are the only brand that has this rule and all of the brands allow adjustments on chip-and-signature transactions.”