The UK's Chip and PIN Programme says it reached all its 2004 roll out targets for upgrading cardholders and businesses to the point-of-sale payments technology.
Since roll out began in October 2003 over 76.8 million chip and PIN cards have been issued to more than 36 million customers and 636,000 tills have been upgraded, according to the Chip and PIN, programme. UK companies are processing on average 45 chip and PIN transactions every second.
Despite this, around a quarter of cardholders in the UK still don't have a chip and PIN card, and only 45% of cardholders surveyed by the programme said they were using the system for all or most of their card transactions.
The rosy outlook further contrasts with research conducted by payments software vendor Retail Logic after the 1 Janury liability shift, which found that fewer than half of UK retailers are actually using the chip and PIN system for processing card transactions.
But the Chip and PIN Programme team insists that transition to the system has been successful, saying that 71% of cardholders expect their next transaction to be carried out using chip and PIN.
Sandra Quinn from the Chip and PIN Programme, says: "Chip and PIN will continue to rollout during 2005, with more cards being issued when they reach their expiry dates and businesses upgrading their till point technology."