Only 22 percent of retailers support EMV

The survey’s results also show that 16% of respondents say they have no plans ever to support EMV.

Ryan Grogman, Boston Retail Partners vice president, said the problem is that POS systems in the U.S. are relatively complex, making the EMV upgrade process more challenging than it might otherwise be. He cited long lead times for new payment terminals and certification, a limited set of payment switch development resources and payment provider support resources, and a scarcity of POS developers as factors contributing to a big backlog in EMV implementations.

EMV is not a panacea for payment fraud, according to Grogman, which notes that Trustev has predicted that online fraud will increase by 106% over the next three years in response to the shift to EMV. Online retail fraud surged by 100% in Canada and Australia, and by 89% in the UK, after those countries switched to EMV.

A factor in the EMV delay is the arrival of mobile payment solutions like Apple Pay. Mobile payments are likely to become popular once they are tied in with retail and loyalty applications, according to security experts.

Separately, a CardHub survey found that approximately 42% of larger US retailers have not updated the point-of-sale (POS) terminals in any of their stores, and 24% have updated fewer than 50% of their terminals to accept EMV cards.