Mastercard to offer faster payments with Verifone partnership
Mastercard is aiming to speed up processing times for chip and pin payments in the US. It is partnering with Verifone and Global Payments to help build its M/Chip Fast technology into payment card-reading services. The goal is to save time for customers at fast food restaurants, grocery stores and other places where queues often build up.
Chip cards are ultimately faster than paying with a magnetic stripe and a signature (or worse, a check), but they're sometimes slow -- and it's bad enough that Mastercard wants to do something. The company is partnering with Verifone and Global Payments to build its speedy M/Chip Fast technology into EMV card reading systems destined for the US. The focus is on fast food, grocery stores, mass transit and anywhere else that waiting even a few seconds might cause frustration (especially for the people behind you).

As for a timetable? Unfortunately, there isn't any -- that's partly dependent on retailers upgrading their gear. However, there's certainly an incentive to offer improvements relatively soon. Although the US was very late to chip-and-PIN payments, it's already the largest market. Even a modest speed-up could drastically reduce checkout times, helping businesses handle more customers. And of course, it'd encourage the use of chip cards -- you might be more likely to lean on yours if it helps you return home that much sooner.