UK card spending continues to rise

Ten years since the introduction of chip and PIN, new figures released by the UK Cards Association reveal that almost four in every five pounds of spending at British retailers is now made through debit and credit cards. Introduced to combat fraud on lost and stolen and counterfeit cards, the changeover to chip and PIN became compulsory on February 14, 2006. When the switchover in 2006 occurred, only 55 per cent of retail spending was made on payment cards, compared to the 78.5 per cent recorded in December 2015. Since chip and PIN’s introduction there has been a reduction in High Street fraud, with annual counterfeit card fraud losses alone down £81.9 million between 2004 and 2014.