A report from payment systems provider ACI Worldwide has revealed trends related to EMV, mobile payments, banking, fraud and innovation.

Conducted in June at the 2013 ACI Americas Exchange conference in Boston, the ACI survey found that banking and payments stakeholders believe that EMV will act as a driving force in the adoption of mobile technology. Moreover, almost half of the survey’s respondents — 49% — state that the U.S. migration to EMV will see consumers move away from card-based transaction in favor of mobile payments.

These findings are surprising as previous opinion has suggested that the jump to EMV mobile technology would be a gradual one.

“Everything I have heard during my work with the forum and in conversations with those in the industry has led me to believe there will be dual adoption and consumers will continue to carry their physical cards,” says Dan Heimann, consulting manager at ACI Worldwide and vice-chairman of EMV steering committee, U.S. EMV Migration Forum. “Given these findings, I’m more intrigued than ever to watch the rollout and adoption rates for EMV cards.”

Amid EMV migration in the U.S., survey respondents identified challenges associated with rolling out new payment systems. Specific challenges to the implementation of EMV include:

• 32% suggested that rolling out hardware updates – to POS terminals, ATMs, etc. – would present the largest issue
• 26% cited the education/training of business constituents and driving consumer awareness and adoption
as the largest challenge
• 24% reported concern over meeting compliance and liability shift deadlines

For adoption over the next year, only 15% of survey respondents believe that uniform EMV standards would facilitate rollout.

To accompany the adoption of EMV, ACI Worldwide is also keeping an eye on the mobile wallet, with the thought that the increasing popularity of mobile banking and payments will likely lead to increased adoption of m-wallet solutions.

ACI asked respondents which banking solution will most likely be adopted within the coming year, and better than 60% of survey respondents reported mobile banking (35%) or mobile payments (27%).  These reports did not include mobile wallets, however, and despite awareness of mobile wallet solutions, only one in 10 survey respondents reported that mobile wallets would gain widespread adoption in the coming two years.

Other findings of the survey include the following:

What trend will have the biggest impact on the banking and retail industries?

• 19% – The adoption of mobile banking
• 12% – Increasing number of banks offering online/mobile bill pay services
• 11% – Industry and regulatory mandates will slow mobile rollout

When asked to identify the biggest obstacle to banks and retailers looking to implement mobile solutions:

• 35% – Fraud
• 27% – Lack of integration with core system software
• 15% – Implementing hardware infrastructure to support mobile
• 13% – Lack of consistent industry standards
• 7% – Lack of market interest
• 4% – Competition from new entrants

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