Visa Inc. on Thursday offered an olive branch to merchants who haven’t yet started accepting more secure chip cards, saying it would speed up the certification process for check-out terminals and limit the costs that retailers will have to incur for counterfeit transactions.

The moves follow widespread complaints from merchants around the country since October. That was when new payment-industry rules shifted the financial responsibility for the cost of fraud to the merchants from card-issuing financial institutions.

Merchants contend that their transition to chip cards has been delayed by certification bottlenecks, forcing them to pay for fraud even when they have the proper equipment in place to start accepting chip cards. Two Florida merchants sued Visa and other card companies in March over the issue.

Some 1.2 million merchant locations are now accepting chip cards in the U.S. and more than 300 chip-enabled credit cards and debit cards are in customer wallets, according to Visa. The chip cards have been used around the rest of the world for years.

“We’re very encouraged by the progress to date but we recognize that this marketplace is very complex and we still have work to do to get merchants through the pipeline,” said Mark Nelsen, Visa’s senior vice president for risk products, in an interview.

Visa said that it would simplify the process by which equipment gets certified and take other steps that could halve the time frame for chip-card acceptance.

The new cards are embedded with a computer chip that creates a one-time code for each transaction that makes it less attractive for criminals to produce counterfeit cards. Traditional cards have a magnetic strip on the back that contains static customer data that criminals can steal and use.

Customers must insert the new cards into a slot at the bottom of the check-out terminal rather than swiping it.

To accept chip-card transactions, merchants need new equipment that must then go through extensive testing and certification by companies that process their transactions. Such equipment is already in place and operating at many of the nation’s largest merchants, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp.

Other merchants, however, have been slower to accept chip cards. Many regional grocery chains, for example, still require their customers to swipe cards.

Visa said it is reducing the number of tests that must be conducted on the terminals to mainly focus on ensuring the equipment can generate the one-time code required for more secure transactions.

In another move to appease merchants, Visa said it would modify its fraud-cost policy to ease the financial burden on merchants who aren’t yet accepting chip cards.

The company said card-issuing banks would stop sending fraud costs, known as chargebacks, to merchants on transactions below $25. The change in policy, which takes effect July 22, means that banks will again be required to pay for that fraud.

Visa also said merchants would only be responsible for chargebacks on a maximum of 10 transactions per account, with banks assuming liability above that level starting in October. Consumers who don’t check their statements frequently can be the victim of fraud multiple times before they notice the fraudulent charges and alert their card issuer.

Visa said the changes, which are in effect until April 2018, could result in 40% fewer chargebacks for merchants.

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