Visa Promises Quicker EMV Transactions
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A software update from Visa promises to speed up EMV chip card transactions for consumers.
Dubbed “Quick Chip for EMV,” and free of charge to acquirers, processors and other payment networks, the service typically enables consumers to insert and them remove their chip cards from terminals in two seconds or less, without waiting for the “transaction to finalize,” Visa said. Terminals with the software upgrade can also enable shoppers to insert their EMV cards into the slot while items are still being rung up.
“Quick Chip is a solution that improves the consumer’s transaction experience with relatively minor changes to the checkout terminal,” said Allen Friedman, vice president of Payment Solutions, Ingenico. “Being able to make this update using existing EMV chip infrastructure and not requiring re-certification means retailers can integrate this enhancement into their solutions with minimal impact to the POS terminal application.”
Visa said that the update can be easily downloaded to payment terminals, and that merchants must make no changes to routing or transaction handling after doing so. Assuming a merchant’s terminals have been certified as EMV chip compliant, no more testing is needed before the upgraded terminals can accept payments.
More than 256 million U.S. debit and credit cards carrying the Visa brand are EMV-enabled. More than 1 million merchants can accept EMV transactions; that translates into about 20 percent of U.S. merchant locations, Visa said.
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