The clock is ticking on EMV adoption, but one bank, at least, is ready.

The Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks will be one of the first large banks to ditch magstripe for more secure chip-and-PIN technology. New accounts and account renewals will all receive chip-and-PIN cards going forward, the bank said this week.

The recent Target breach has brought chip-and-PIN cards back into the payments conversation. The cards, also known as smart cards or EMV cards, which stands for Europay-MasterCard-Visa, are common in Europe and elsewhere, but a rarity in the magstripe-loving U.S. The payments industry has set October 2015 as the target date for EMV ubiquity, but Aite Group, the consultancy, suggests only 70% of credit cards and 40% of debit cards will be smart cards by that date.

Beverly Ladley, head of retail products at SunTrust, told Bank Innovation that the move was made ahead of schedule to ensure “uninterrupted service and the best possible experience for our clients.” Certainly, anyone who has traveled to Europe and tried and failed to use his magstripe card will see the advantages of EMV cards for international travel. But a more important factor for most customers is improved security.

For consumers, chip-and-PIN means they must enter a PIN upon each transaction.

“The chip helps protect the account holder by making it more difficult to duplicate the card or make purchases without authorization,” Ladley said. “When used to make a purchase at a ‘chip-enabled’ point of sale terminal, the chip card exchanges encrypted card authentication algorithms and other security data designed to protect the account holder’s identity and ensure the card being presented is genuine.”

The Target breach last November was not a factor in speeding up the time frame of the rollout, Ladley said.

With about 6.5 million deposit customers, according to FDIC data, and a number of credit card customers on top of that, SunTrust has many cards to replace. And there are significant costs associated with that replacement, considering that EMV cards cost more than $2 each compared to magstripe cards, which cost less than $1 each.

With the industry lagging and the cost of cards so high, it’s not hard to see why banks aren’t exactly rushing to do what SunTrust is doing.