Currently, almost half of the world’s credit card fraud happens in the U.S where magnetic stripe technology is the standard. Outside the U.S., an estimated 40% of the world’s cards and 70% of the terminals already use the EMV technology. These countries are reporting significantly lower counterfeit fraud levels with EMV cards than with the magnetic stripe cards.

By October 1, 2015, many people in the U.S. who use credit cards will likely notice changes when they pay for purchases at retail stores. The reason for the change is the “EMV liability shift” scheduled to occur on October 1 (EMV is an acronym for EuroPay, MasterCard, and Visa). As described in more detail below, the “liability shift” is an incentive for both merchants and card issuers to increase card security and reduce counterfeit fraud.

This post provides some background on EMV technology and describes the liability-related incentives the card brands are providing to encourage quicker adoption of EMV.