Following the lead of rival Visa, MasterCard has finally set out plans to push the United States into abandoning mag-stripe cards in favour of EMV chip technology.
The MasterCard roadmap includes:
- Solidifying EMV as the foundation of the next generation of payments.
- An immediate focus on acquirer infrastructure, working with acquirers to ensure infrastructure readiness by April 2013.
- Encouraging greater security and cardholder verification, providing consumers with greater control and to reduce fraudulent transactions.
- Providing incentives so that merchants get "true financial benefits" when they implement EMV-compatible terminals.
- Covering all channels by addressing all touch points where consumers will interact with MasterCard, including ATMs, the physical point-of-sale, online and mobile commerce.
- A commitment to leadership with the aim of fostering industry collaboration to deliver the next generation of payments into the US marketplace.
Master Cards prime decision of switching to EMV technology is to cope up with the world which is moving beyond plastic, where consumers are shopping either from their tablets or mobiles. A move to EMV equipment by merchants could also advance mobile-payment technology, experts said. The terminals that handle chip-based cards are often compatible with systems that allow customers to tap and pay with a smartphone embedded with payment technology. Such systems are just now being rolled out or tested in the U.S. Apart from making financial information more secure, smart cards would make life for frequent travellers a lot easier. Some European businesses can't even accept American debit and credit cards because of the old magnetic strip model.
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