Chip Rollout Has Banks Scrambling Posted by AVCU on 3:37 PM

An MSN Money article explores the rush to chip cards for credit and debit, and the related impact on card manufacturers. About 575 million chip-embedded cards are expected to be in the wallets of American consumers by year-end, making it the biggest rollout of new cards in decades. This represents about 75% of U.S. credit cards and about 40% of debit cards.

Even with so many chip cards going into consumer hands, only Wal-Mart and a few other large retailers moved to accept the new plastic so far. Target, which had a massive breach in late 2013, upgraded its terminals an
d plans to start accepting chip cards in late spring. Meanwhile, many smaller merchants are griping they won’t meet the October deadline for the liability shift for fraudulent transactions.

Chip cards represent about 80% of those being made at the Oberthur plant outside of Philadelphia, which produces 20 million cards a month. The plant employs 1,080 workers, up 68% since 2013, and it recently shifted to round-the-clock operations.

Follow the link for to read the MSN story in entirety.