Visa today announced the launch of Quick Chip for EMV, a technology enhancement designed to speed up EMV card authorizations to two seconds or less and allow shoppers to dip and withdraw their cards instantly — just as they do with magstripe cards. The new offering would eliminate the concerns expressed by many customers — and by merchants who have refused to upgrade to EMV card readers — that chip card authorizations take too long.
Visa is making the Quick Chip specification available free of charge to merchants via their payment processors and acquiring banks. The technology is available now for Visa transactions but Visa said it will make Quick Chip available to other payment networks to customize. It requires only a software update to the merchant’s card terminals or point-of-sale system, Visa said.
In related news, Visa released figures showing that chip cards are already having an effect on card counterfeiting. At the five largest EMV-enabled retailers, counterfeit card fraud fell by 18 percent from the end of 2014 to the end of 2015. However, only about 20 percent of all merchant locations nationwide have chip-enabled terminals.
