Just one year ago, many U.S. consumers were completely unfamiliar with the letters “EMV” or the term “chip card.” Today, most Americans know the words and likely have a chip card in their wallet or purse, accompanied by an opinion about the change. But, they may still not fully understand why the shift to EMV is an important advancement in securing the payments infrastructure.
Despite claims to the contrary, we’re exceeding most expectations in terms of EMV adoption. We expected the transition to take at least five years, which is the time it took European nations to get to 50 percent chip-transaction market penetration. Nearly three-quarters of Americans report they already have at least one chip card. According to preliminary results conducted by The Strawhecker Group (TSG), about half of all U.S. merchants now have an EMV terminal and a third of U.S. merchants are enabled and activated (in other words, accepting chip-on-chip transactions).