MasterCard Reports Decline in Counterfeit Fraud

The number of merchants accepting chip cards increased to 1.4 million as of April 30, according to MasterCard data.

May 31, 2016

PURCHASE, N.Y. – Americans are increasingly using EMV chip cards to make purchases as 68% of all U.S.-issued MasterCard-branded consumer credit cards feature the technology as of April 30, 2016.

Chip-active merchant locations also increased to 1.4 million during this same time, including more than one million local and regional merchants.

To drive progress, MasterCard announced it is working with other payments networks, acquirers and processors on a standard to speed checkout times. These efforts will be based on the company’s M/Chip Fast solution, specifically designed for environments where faster transaction times are particularly important.

Based on MasterCard fraud reports from a compilation of large chip-enabled U.S. merchants:

  • Counterfeit card fraud basis points at those merchants have decreased by 39% in January 2016 compared with January 2015
  • Counterfeit fraud at those merchants has decreased by 27% in terms of their overall U.S. dollar volume in January 2016 compared with January 2015

Meanwhile, MasterCard’s fraud reduction data poses concerns, especially with less than 15% of U.S. merchants supporting EMV. “Is this a true reduction, or is it that issuers have (as we have heard in the press) simply launched their fraud into the merchant’s backyard with liability shift?” said Gray Taylor, executive director of Conexxus. “The fact is, most merchants under the October 2015 date are still struggling to get a usable EMV platform in their stores.” 

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