But Sam Fabens, spokesman for the Electronic Payments Coalition, said that while the EMV transition is gradual, it is happening. “There have been more chip cards issued in the U.S. than anywhere in the world,” he said, adding that, “it was designed to be a process.”
“In some cases, merchants looked at their risk profile in terms of when to make the transition (to EMV-enabled terminals), and small ones may have decided to wait for natural update,” he said.