MasterCard's Adoption to Chip Cards Accelerates, Though Merchants Lag

MasterCard Inc. said Monday that 88% of its U.S. consumer credit cards now have fraud-reducing chips, even as the slower payment method continues to frustrate users and merchants.

The company said 33% of its U.S. merchants now use chip terminals, up multifold since last October but still far from being universal.

The new chip cards, which are typically inserted into credit-card machines instead of swiped, are meant to reduce credit card fraud because they prevent cards from being counterfeited.

Since last October, retailers that didn't make the transition to chip cards are on the hook for counterfeit transactions that used to be covered by card-issuing banks. Consumers have also complained that transactions now take longer to go through and they don't know whether to swipe or insert their cards, as many merchants haven't fully adopted the new technology.

Craig Vosburg, Mastercard's president of North America, said things won't change overnight.

"With every additional chip transaction we move closer and closer to our collective goal—moving fraud out of the system," Mr. Vosburg said.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 12, 2016 10:25 ET (14:25 GMT)

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