Showing someone a road map is one thing; it's up to them to follow it. And it looks like U.S. merchants, acquirers and processors may not be following the EMV-migration "road maps" issued by the major payment networks. At least that's the determination of a new report from Mercator Advisory Group.

Beginning with Visa in 2011, the major U.S. payment networks have all issued similar road maps for payment stakeholders such as merchants and ATM deployers to follow in adopting the EMV security standard. These plans include milestones that these stakeholders must meet as well as penalties for failing to meet them.

In a report called "U.S. EMV Timeline Beyond the Road Maps: How Long Will Conversion Really Take?" Mercator argues that past experience in other markets that have switched to EMV, as well as similar technology conversions in the payment industry, shows that the timelines are not realistic.

"The road maps laid out by the networks intend to convert the U.S. payments ecosystem to EMV by 2015, four years after the first road map was developed," said Dave Kaminsky, senior analyst in Mercator Advisory Group's Emerging Technologies Advisory Service and author of the report. "Judging by the experience of other countries in trying to implement EMV, as well as the experience of the networks' previous attempts to influence changes among U.S. merchants, that timeframe likely will not be met."

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