Under pressure from credit card companies, major banks and retailers have begun to roll out the cards, which carry a computer chip and advanced security software that keeps the customer's account number and other details invisible, even if crooks manage to steal records from a store or bank, according to The Washington Post.
But U.S. banks and retailers, a decade behind in deploying the secure, high-tech credit cards used elsewhere in the world, may take years longer to switch to a system that all but eliminates common types of fraud, the Post reported.
The conversion could take years to reach an agreement over who will foot the estimated $8 billion bill, despite fears that scammers have been targeting the United States because of its outdated technology, according to the Post.
U.S. credit card fraud rates, once the lowest in the world, have doubled in the 10 years since chip cards spread through Europe, the Post reported
The theft of tens of millions of records from Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels arts and crafts over the past months has focused attention on the United States as a weak link, according to the Post. Lawmakers have begun to call for faster action to secure systems while law enforcement agencies investigate the massive breach, which is thought to have been the work of sophisticated overseas hackers.
According to Carolyn Balfany, a senior vice president with MasterCard Worldwide, the secure cards "will take time. . . . The U.S. is the largest and the most complex market to move, so that will influence the migration," the Post reported.
The large card companies have said that as of late 2015, they will hold merchants or banks who have not moved to the chip-card system responsible for fraudulent purchases that the advanced cards would have prevented, according to the Post.
