FOSTER CITY, Calif.—As acceptance of EMV cards has gained traction in the U.S., counterfeit fraud, measured in dollars for these card-present transactions, has dropped precipitously, Visa said.
The latest stats show that the continued upgrade to chip card acceptance – which began in 2015 – has led to a decrease in counterfeit fraud dollars on the order of 76%, as measured in December of 2018 vs. September of 2015, stated Pymnts.com in its analysis
Total counterfeit fraud dollars decreased by 49%, Visa said.
Visa also said that more than 3.5 million merchant locations now accept chip cards, which represents a 771% boost since U.S. businesses began migrating to EMV, when 392,000 merchants had such acceptance in place, Pymnts.com explained.
“That means roughly 75% of U.S. storefronts now accept chip cards, according to the data,” Pymnts.com said.
Visa said that at the end of March, there were 509 million Visa chip cards in the U.S., which represents a 219% boost since October of 2015.
Visa’s data also shows that 99% of the overall U.S. payments volume in March of this year was done with EMV cards.