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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.
