MasterCard Working To Speed Up EMV Transactions With New Standard

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Standard will be based on the M/Chip Fast solution that allows cards to be removed earlier.

The transition to EMV has meant a lot of headaches for retailers, including absorbing the cost of new hardware and software, training costs for employees, familiarization processes for customers, and the slow-down of check-out lines as a result of the new process.

According to the Wall Street Journal,  a survey by JDA Software, found that a chip card piles on eight to 12 additional seconds per checkout, as customers are acclimating to using the cards, attempting the traditional mag-stripe process first or requiring attention from the store clerk. At one retailer JDA studied, the additional transaction time could add $3.2 million to annual labor costs.

Now, MasterCard has announced  that it is collaborating with payments networks, acquirers and processors to develop a standard to accelerate shopper transactions across the 1.4 million U.S. merchant locations that accept EMV chip cards. While few details are available on the process, MasterCard has said that the standard will be based on its fledgling M/Chip Fast solution, which allows customers to remove their EMV-enabled cards from terminals earlier in the transaction process.

M/Chip Fast, introduced earlier this spring, “effectively prioritizes the parts of transactions that are critical to security. Cardholders can expect to experience speeds closer to the familiar magnetic stripe transactions with the added security of EMV.” MasterCard also has called for the industry to activate current action-oriented forums like the Payments Security Taskforce and the EMV Migration Forum to align  to create and support a common approach that addresses perceptions of speed of a chip card transaction.

“The whole point of EMV is to reduce counterfeit card fraud,” Chiro Aikat, MasterCard’s senior vice president of product delivery–EMV, said in a press release. “We are impressed with the progress that’s been made so far. We’re taking these steps today to continue the pace of adoption. Making our M/Chip Fast technology available to all parties is our latest investment in this ongoing commitment.”

Visa also recently released its own Quick Chip for EMV, working to streamline checkout and ensure speed and convenience of secure chip card transactions.  “Visa is advancing a streamlined approach to chip transactions to make them faster and more efficient, while still providing a safe and secure experience,”  explained Mark Nelsen, senior vice president of Risk Products and Business Intelligence, Visa Inc. “Quick Chip for EMV helps make the checkout experience comparable to the ease and speed of magnetic stripe transactions.”

Each time an EMV-enabled card is used it creates a unique and dynamic transaction that’s significantly more fraud-resistant than swiping credit and debit cards with magnetic strips. As of April 30, 68 percent of all U.S.-issued MasterCard-branded consumer credit cards incorporate EMV technology, the company said.