US EMV Cards to Hit 575 Million by 2015

More than 575 million EMV payment cards will likely be issued in the US by 2015, according to a recent forecast by nine of the biggest card issuers in the country.

The forecast was released by the Payments Security Task Force (PST), which represents a group of US electronic payment industry players, including the nine major card issuers—Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover, Independent Community Bankers of America, Navy Federal Credit Union, US Bank and Wells Fargo & Company.

The PST, which has initially focused on continuing the momentum of EMV chip cards adoption in the US, seeks to update the issuer forecast on a regular basis and expand it to include the perspectives of acquirers and merchants on EMV chip terminalization.

To promote EMV chip implementation, the PST is also working to identify best practices around merchant testing and certification to help reduce the testing and implementation time.

“The pace of EMV adoption is rapidly accelerating with many institutions already issuing EMV chip cards, and even more coming onboard every month,” said Guy Chiarello, president of First Data.

Chiarello also encouraged all institutions to introduce their EMV plans immediately, stressing that EMV implementation will reduce fraud losses and improve payments systems security.

Next on the task force’s list of priorities is a long-term roadmap to deliver consistent security for payments in both the physical and digital environments.