Nearly half of U.S. merchant terminals to accept chip in 2015

The Payments Security Task Force (PST) announced a forecast of participating acquirers estimating that at least 47 percent of U.S. merchant terminals will be enabled for EMV chip technology by the end of 2015. The estimates are based on forecasts provided by acquirers representing approximately 80 percent of U.S purchase volume.

Last week’s announcement complements a similar forecast from card issuers in August, where nine of the country’s largest payment card issuers estimated they would issue more than 575 million chip-enabled payment cards by the end of 2015. The PST plans to update both card and terminal forecasts on a quarterly basis.

“This forecast reflects efforts across the industry over the past two years,” said Chris McWilton, president, North American Markets, MasterCard. “Retailers, issuers, acquirers and others have addressed consumer concerns head-on and have begun to make the investments to further enhance the security of their payments. We will continue to work to deliver the same levels of security both in-store and online.”

Formed in March 2014, the task force, which represents a diverse group of U.S. electronic payment industry players, is a collective effort that is initially focused on continuing the momentum of EMV chip implementation in the United States.

“The key to reducing fraud is close coordination and cooperation among card issuers, acquirers, merchants, device manufacturers, and the networks in the deployment of chip technology,” said Ryan McInerney, president of Visa Inc. “That’s one of the reasons Visa and MasterCard established the Payment Security Task Force. These numbers suggest that the industry is making substantial progress toward our goal of enhancing security at the checkout.”

Among the participants are Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Credit Union National Association, First Data, Discover, Global Payments Inc., Kroger, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Marriott, MasterCard, Navy Federal Credit Union, Sheetz, Subway, US Bank, Vantiv, Visa and Wells Fargo & Company.