MasterCard and Visa announced on Thursday that they will move their EMV fraud liability shift dates for automated fuel dispensers from October 2017 to October 2020.

Visa released a press release outlining the reasons that prompted the three-year delay:

The fuel segment has its own unique challenges, which we recognized when we first set the chip activation date for automated fuel dispensers/pumps (AFDs) two years after regular in-store locations. We knew that the AFD segment would need more time to upgrade to chip because of the complicated infrastructure and specialized technology required for fuel pumps. For instance, in some cases, older pumps may need to be replaced before adding chip readers, requiring specialized vendors and breaking into concrete. Furthermore, five years after announcing our liability shift, there are still issues with a sufficient supply of regulatory-compliant EMV hardware and software to enable most upgrades by 2017.

The company said the change applies only to automated fuel dispensers and the October 2017 fraud liability shift deadline established for ATMs remains unchanged.

MasterCard conveyed essentially the same message in its own press release.

U.S. Payments Forum Director Randy Vanderhoof applauded the change, saying "Visa's and Mastercard's modification of the liability shift dates will be beneficial to the retail petroleum industry and the U.S. chip migration."

Visa reported that, despite the postponement, the U.S. payments industry is making progress on migration to the EMV standard:

More than 1.7 million merchants representing more than a third of storefronts are now accepting chip cards; 388 million Visa chip cards have been issued in the U.S., and we are already seeing a 43 percent reduction of counterfeit fraud at chip-enabled merchants.

Read the full text of the MasterCard announcement.

Read the full text of the Visa announcement.