Payment giants Visa and MasterCard have agreed to work together to introduce standardised chip-and-pin technology to US consumers.
The two brands developed their own debit solutions aimed at the US market to enable card users to enter their pin at the point of transaction, which they have now licensed to each other.
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The card competitors joined forces in order to introduce a standard system for using chip-and-pin in the US.
Europay, MasterCard and Visa have already collaborated over chip technologies in Europe, so that a debit chip transaction can be routed by the merchant to Visa, MasterCard or Europay.
Chris McWilton, president of MasterCard US, said the agreement would improve the standard of security for debit payments. "This represents our continued commitment to delivering maximum value to merchants, consumers and issuers," he said.
"By providing every U.S. debit network with an efficient, market-ready answer, we are delivering a proven solution that preserves merchant routing choice and ensures seamless interoperability with all other EMV programs across the globe," he added.
Elizabeth Buse, an executive at Visa, said the move would benefit US retailers, as they would not need to purchase new chip techonology. "Importantly, this solution allows merchants and acquirers to deploy payment terminals using existing chip technologies that are already widely integrated." she said.
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