Today, Square announced a new version of its popular mobile payment system that will support EMV chipped credit cards. EMV is a joint effort from MasterCard and Visa to help improve security credit and debit card transactions and is set to become a standard in the US by October 2015. In addition to EMV-equipped credit cards, the new version of Square’s payment system will still feature support for legacy magnetic strips, so customers will still have the option to swipe and sign.
“There are more and more ways to pay, and with options like bitcoin and contactless, customers expect to pay however they want; cashiers should never have to say ‘We don’t accept that’,” said Square CEO Jack Dorsey in a press release. “Square started by empowering anybody to accept credit cards and enabling customers to pay with their name. Our EMV readers are the next step towards ensuring sellers make every sale.”
Square has not announced a release date for its new portable EMV readers, but the company said it will begin accepting pre-orders later this year.
SQUARE ANNOUNCES EMV READER AND RESOURCE FOR SELLERS
Square prepares small businesses for the EMV migration and industry shift to chip-enabled credit cards
SAN FRANCISCO, July 30, 2014 — Today Square announced its plans to release Square Reader for chip cards, an EMV solution to combat card fraud and protect sensitive payment data. Continuing its commitment to provide sellers more ways to securely accept payments, Square’s new reader will give sellers the ability to accept chip cards with a low-cost, beautifully designed mobile card reader that offers further protection from card fraud.
Today Square also launched a dedicated EMV destination to equip sellers of all sizes with critical information and tools necessary to stay ahead of the upcoming need for U.S. businesses to be able to accept chip cards by October 2015.
“There are more and more ways to pay, and with options like bitcoin and contactless, customers expect to pay however they want; cashiers should never have to say ‘We don’t accept that’,” said Jack Dorsey of Square. “Square started by empowering anybody to accept credit cards and enabling customers to pay with their name. Our EMV readers are the next step towards ensuring sellers make every sale.”
Currently, most EMV solutions cost hundreds of dollars and require lengthy contracts. Square’s new chip reader, available later this year for pre-order, is built to give sellers an affordable and seamless transition to securely accepting chip card payments. Like Square’s current card reader, this reader is small enough to fit in a pocket and works with iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
Learn more about Square’s EMV solution at square.com/emv.
About Square, Inc.
Square helps anyone take care of their business. Square’s complete register service is a full point of sale with tools for every part of running a business, from accepting credit cards, to sales and inventory tracking, to small business financing. Customers also use Square Cash, the easiest way to send and receive money, and Square Order, a new way to pre-order food and drinks for pickup. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, Square is currently available in the United States, Canada, and Japan.
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Since we’ve been using EMV cards in Canada for several years now, I’ve been wondering when they were going to catch up with this.
Oh, wait… it’s not Chip + PIN like we use, it’s Chip + Signature. I guess we’ll have to wait for the PIN advancement for a bit longer.
The U.S. has determined that Chip + PIN is as Un(US)American as the metric system.
It’s hard to remember 4 digits in the correct sequence.