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Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s viewpoint – Ready or Not, U.S. Contactless Debit Card Issuance Takes Off.
How did the EMV liability shift lay the groundwork for contactless cards?
- In the early 2000s, the card networks tried to seed the market with contactless cards
- Despite offering free contactless terminals for merchants, the attempt failed
- There were simply not enough contactless terminals to build a habit for consumers
- But contactless upgrades came along with billions spent on EMV upgrades
- The push for mobile payments (think Apple Pay) also helped raise awareness of contactless payment
- But contactless cards might actually be faster than mobile phone payments
- So QSRs, grocery, fuel, & convenience stores have widely adopted contactless acceptance
About the viewpoint
Several issuers have announced their intentions to issue dual interface cards, ushering in contactless transactions at the point-of sale for debit cardholders.
As cards issued during the migration to EMV chip cards are now being re-issued to accountholders, financial institutions are moving to contactless, even if the acceptance market isn’t quite ready.
Several issuers have announced their intentions to issue dual interface cards, ushering in contactless transactions at the point-of sale for debit cardholders.
