Throughout the ongoing adoption of EMV chip cards in the U.S., consumers and merchants alike have expressed concerns about the speed of this new technology. Although the transaction time for an EMV chip card is roughly 15 seconds, it can feel like an eternity compared to a two-second swipe. Recently, however, MasterCard and Visa have answered consumers’ calls for faster chip card payments.
The introduction of Visa’s Quick Chip and MasterCard’s M/Chip Fast promise to bring EMV chip card transactions to the speed of contactless, which take only a couple of seconds. Both of these technologies reduce the current two-step authentication process to a single step, which may cut down long checkout lines.
For cardholders, transactions with Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast will entail the following process:
- Cardholder inserts card into the terminal. If the final transaction amount has not yet been determined, a predetermined amount will be used.
- The card generates a cryptogram response and transmits it to the terminal.
- A message displays on the terminal saying the card may be removed.
- The terminal transmits the authorization request and receives a real-time response. Any predetermined amounts used during transactions may not match final amounts on authorization requests. However, this will not impact transaction processing as issuers use final amounts for authorization decisions.
Although Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast are still in their piloting phases, FIs can already benefit. Touting the time-saving capabilities of these new technologies may help FIs reach EMV doubters. Additionally, these updates do not impact FIs’ in-market chip cards. Implementing Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast simply requires EMV-enabled terminals receive a software upgrade.
