Payment service Square unveils reader for chip cards

Mobile payments service Square announced it's launching an EMV reader that support credit cards with security chips.

The reader will allow businesses to accept credit cards carrying an EMV chip, which stores additional digital data on the card and makes it tougher to counterfeit.

Square says the reader will be available later this year.

"There are more and more ways to pay, and with options like bitcoin and contactless, customers expect to pay however they want; cashiers should never have to say 'we don't accept that'," said Square founder Jack Dorsey in a statement Wednesday.

Banks in the U.S. are slowly rolling out new credit cards with EMV chips, developed by credit card firms MasterCard and Visa along with payments firm Europay. The chip carries "dynamic authentication" that helps reduce the risk of fraud, according to an explainer on MasterCard's website.

Retailers have until October 2015 to install hardware that accepts chip cards.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.