Visa announced Quick Chip, a technology enhancement that optimizes EMV®¹ chip card processing to not only speed up checkout times, but also significantly streamline chip implementation.

Index, a leading retail software company that combines secure payments, measurement, and personalization, has deployed the first implementation of Quick Chip in the United States at New Leaf Community Markets, a chain of seven natural grocery stores in Northern California. New Leaf customers can now insert and remove their chip card from store payment terminals in about two seconds.

In addition to accelerating chip card transactions, Quick Chip also enables faster deployment of EMV chip systems for retailers. Working with Index, New Leaf’s Quick Chip implementation took just seven days, providing a streamlined approach that made it possible to speed through development, terminal testing, and certification.

Following the successful Quick Chip launch at New Leaf, Index plans to activate at other retail merchant partners – in some cases getting merchants up and running overnight, when just a remote software upgrade is all that is needed.

“Quick Chip was astoundingly straightforward to execute,” said Joseph Koenig, partner technology manager, Index. “We are now working to activate Quick Chip for our other retailer clients, either as part of a new chip solution or a software upgrade to their existing chip system.”

“Index and New Leaf’s experiences demonstrate that it’s possible to implement chip systems that deliver a fast and convenient consumer experience, stronger security, and protection against counterfeit fraud, in a matter of days—not weeks or months,” said Stephanie Ericksen, vice president, Risk and Authentication Products, Visa Inc. “Even more important than transaction speed is the ability to build, test, and deploy entire merchant chip solutions so quickly. The opportunity for more merchants to become chip-enabled and protect themselves against counterfeit fraud liability without delays is significant.”

“The upgrade to Quick Chip was fairly invisible from our perspective,” said Brendan Lazarus, IT manager, New Leaf Community Markets. “Once we decided to move forward, working with our partner Index, the process moved quickly. We appreciate the responsiveness of Index in cracking the code on this technology quickly so we can make our customers’ checkout experience better and faster.”

The Quick Chip specification is available free-of-charge to payment processors, acquiring banks, and other payment networks to offer to merchants. The upgrade streamlines the processing of chip card transactions to enable customers to dip and remove their EMV chip card from the terminal without waiting for the transaction to be finalized. The enhancement requires only a software update to the merchant’s payment terminal or point of sale system.