Mastercard announced on Monday a plan to phase out usage of magnetic stripes on its cards, and says it is the first payments network to do so.
Based on the decline in payments powered by magnetic stripes after chip-based payments took hold, newly-issued Mastercard credit and debit cards will not be required to have a stripe starting in 2024 in most markets. By 2033, no Mastercard credit and debit cards will have magnetic stripes, which leaves a long runway for the remaining partners who still rely on the technology to phase in chip card processing.
Check It Out: Mastercard Moves to Phase Out Use of Magnetic Stripe by 2024
And yet, still no U.S. requirement for chip-and-PIN, which the rest of the world has employed for years and years, and should have been part of the American EMV transition.
About f—ing time.