Eighty percent of Mastercard-brand U.S. consumer credit cardsnow have EMV chips – an 88% increase since the Oct. 1, 2015,liability shift, according to a press release from MastercardWednesday.

The card network also said 1.7 million U.S. merchants in theMastercard network, or 30% of all U.S. merchants, are now able totake EMV cards. Since Oct. 1, 2015, the number of merchants adopting EMV terminals has spiked by 374%, Mastercardsaid.

“Mastercard has helped over 150 countries adopt EMV and, timeand again, we've seen the same result: Significant reductions incounterfeit card fraud,” Mastercard SVP of Product DeliveryChiro Aikat said. “The U.S. is one of the most complex markets inthe world and great progress has been made in securing our payments ecosystemin a short amount of time. It's rewarding for the industry to startseeing signs that merchants, issuers and consumers can be freedfrom the burdens of card fraud.”

Card-present fraud is down significantly at merchants thataccept EMV, according to Mastercard. Counterfeit card fraud dropped60% at the card network's top five-enabled merchants since theliability shift, it said.

In June, Mastercard launched a new EMV chip terminal testing andcertification program to speed up deployment of chip terminal tomerchants to hours rather than days. The new process also cut the numberof Mastercard-required terminal tests by 58% for acquirers, itsaid.