As the EMV liability shift approaches, the pressure is on both retailers and banks. Retailers need to upgrade their point-of-sale equipment, while banks need to get chip cards in the hands of customers.

Chip card technology and the encryption that protects its transactions, will be the foundation of all future payments, according to MasterCard.

Starting Oct. 1, if a customer uses a chip card and a retailer processes it as a magstripe transaction AND fraud occurs, the retailer, not the bank, will be liable. The banks had to cover a lot of fraudulent transactions after the Target breach in 2013, which significantly raised EMV awareness, and that event is still sending shockwaves through the payments world: Target reached a settlement to pay $67 million to Visa issuers that was announced just today.

Scary stuff.

But not apparently for MasterCard. MC isn’t sweating it; it will all work out, the network says.

MasterCard has a large stake in the EMV rollout, and with more than half of small businesses not ready for the liability shift, according to Wells Fargo, it seems much work remains to be done. The site EMV Connection maintains a list of issuers of EMV cards, and it is a small list. But the list is not completely up-to-date, because it includes no Capital One cards, for example, and Capital One has been issuing chip cards in significant numbers.

MasterCard, for its part, noted that about 47% of merchant terminals are EMV-compliant, and updated cards are being delivered at a steady clip. The Payment Security Taskforce estimates that EMV cards in market are expected to reach 63% by year end and 98% by the end of 2017, said Carolyn Balfany, senior vice president of product delivery at MasterCard.

Balfany was sanguine about the EMV transition overall, discussing its benefits for fraud reduction and saying that consumers are ready for the switch:

The good news is that consumers are optimistic about the change ahead and are actively embracing new technologies and services that will counter security concerns. In a recent MasterCard Survey on the Emotions of Safety and Security, the research showed that a majority of consumers (69%) use chip cards or plan to use them soon, with one-third (32%) already using them regularly. There is no expectation that consumers will be chip card or terminal experts the first time they use their new chip cards, but adoption is positive and promising. New payment technologies are becoming part of Americans’ everyday vernacular. Based on how EMV migration went in other countries, consumers will catch on quickly and get used to a new routine. Inserting the chip card really takes no more time than swiping.

Balfany also positioned EMV cards as the foundation for the next generation of payments.

“The payment security offered by mobile payments, such as Apple Pay and MasterCard digital and contactless payments, is based on chip card security,” she said. “It is the continual investment in multiple layers of new technologies that keep all of us safer.”

She also said that consumers, post-Target, are savvy about their security, and that will ease difficulties with EMV adoption. “Consumers, regardless of age, recognize the importance of protecting their financial information,” she said. “And in today’s digital world, taking an active role in one’s own protection goes hand in hand with embracing new technologies. Chip cards enable safer, smarter and more secure transactions regardless if shoppers pay by card, contactless, mobile or remote payment channels.”

Payments gateway BridgePay Network Solutions did not paint such a sunny picture when speaking to Business Solutions in a story yesterday:

As of July [according to BridgePay]:

• 117 million EMV cards have been issued (28% of total cards)
• 78 million of which are credit and 39 million are debit
• 250,000 merchants have been EMV enabled (this represents about 5% of the U.S. merchant base)
• A few hundred terminals supporting EMV PIN debit have been enabled

That doesn’t sound so good, but BridgePay went on to say that when EMV rolled out in Canada and Australia, “no disaster occurred.”

Balfany also referenced the experience in countries that have already adopted EMV. “Based on how EMV migration went in other countries, consumers will catch on quickly and get used to a new routine,” she said. “Inserting the chip card really takes no more time than swiping.”

Gas stations and ATMs will have until Oct. 1, 2017, to make the switch, and it seems that by that time, magstripe may still be alive and well at other points of sale, as well.