Mobile payment usage ‘remains low’, US debit card study finds

“Combined, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay account for only about one quarter of 1% of US debit transactions,” the annual Debit Issuer Study from debit and ATM network Pulse has found, while the country’s move to EMV chip cards has cut debit card fraud loss rates but “fraud continues to challenge issuers.”

Pulse logo“Enrollment of debit cards into Apple Pay increased 80% in 2016,” Pulse found, “with Apple Pay remaining the most popular mobile wallet of the big three ‘Pays’, which include Android Pay and Samsung Pay.”

In all, three in four issuers now provide cardholders with the ability to add their debit card to at least one mobile wallet but “despite this momentum, usage of debit cards in mobile wallets remains low.”

US financial institutions both substantially increased issuance of chip debit cards in 2016 and experienced reduced fraud losses, Pulse also found.

“Since the fraud liability shift for most debit transactions took effect in 2015, an estimated 80% of US debit cards have been converted to chip cards,” Pulse says. “Fraud loss rates dropped by approximately 28% in 2016 compared to 2015 levels.

“Nonetheless, the 12th annual Debit Issuer Study confirmed that fraud continues to challenge issuers. US financial institutions lost an estimated $900m to debit card fraud in 2016.”

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4 comments on this article

  1. Issuers continue to put account numbers in the clear on magnetic stripes on chip cards. How crazy is that? Most customers do not understand that the use of PINs with chips is safe while the use of the PIN with the mag-stripe on the same card is not.

  2. The growth numbers are more important than the absolute numbers. Consumers will prefer contactless and cardless for convenience but get {account) numberless and less fraud for free.

  3. While the EMV protocols will continue to be useful, the next generation will see the use of today’s EMV cards as quaint. Cards must get smarter and longer-lived if they are to compete with mobiles.

  4. “Mobile payment usage ‘remains low’, US debit card study finds”

    “NFC mobile payments ‘shake off the novelty tag’ in the UK”

    Come now, Sarah. Which is it? Who writes the headlines?

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