Swiping a card these days seems like a thing of the past as more EMV chip cards enter the wallets of U.S. cardholders. There were 509 million Visa chip cards out there alone at the end of March 2019, a 219 percent increase since October 1, 2015. And, according to the latest stats, that’s a good thing.

Merchants who accept chip cards witnessed a 76 percent dip in card present (CP) counterfeit payment fraud since the U.S. payments industry began the shift to EMV chip (which stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa, the three companies who led the initiative) in 2011.[1] One of the leading factors encouraging the adoption of chip technology in 2015 was its effectiveness in reducing counterfeit fraud, which was the primary type of fraud in the United States at the time.

As of the end of March 2019, Visa’s network has shown continued growth across the number of chip cards and chip-enabled merchants, as well as payment and transaction volume since before the shift to EMV chip launched in October 2015.

The same security technology used in chip cards to fight counterfeit fraud is also available in contactless payment cards, which allow users to simply “tap” on the terminal to make a payment. Learn more about the rise of contactless technology and how it works in our Contactless Payments: Global Highlights infographic.

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[1] Counterfeit fraud reduction at full chip-enabled U.S. merchants for the quarter ended December 2018 compared to the quarter ended September 2015.