That Chip in Your Credit Card Is Actually Doing Its Job

The rollout of chip-enabled credit cards in the U.S. has been successful, with Visa seeing a decrease in fraud, the company said.

Counterfeit transactions dipped more than 18% as of late last year among five merchants that began processing credit and debit cards with the new EMV smart chip technology, Visa said, according to USA Today. Meanwhile, another five merchants who had not yet used the chip-enabled cards saw an increase in fraudulent transactions of more than 11%, the newspaper said.

The Brief Newsletter

Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample

Sign Up Now

“We’re seeing EMV is having a positive impact on counterfeit fraud,” Stephanie Ericksen, vice president of risk products at Visa, told USA Today. “Merchants who implement chip, their counterfeit fraud is going down, while those still finalizing plans, their counterfeit fraud is going up.’’

Visa on Tuesday also introduced new technology that will allow chip-card holders to spend less time at cash registers. The upgrade lets customers dip and remove their chip card in two seconds or less without waiting for the transaction to be finalized.

Contact us at editors@time.com.