This survey was conducted at the 2013 ACI Americas Exchange conference in Boston, MA from June 4-6, 2013.

EMV Will Drive Mobile Adoption while Reducing Physical Card Use

Among the principal findings, ACI found that those intimately involved in banking and payments believe that EMV is poised to drive the adoption of mobile technology. According to the survey, nearly half of all respondents (49 percent) believed the U.S. migration to EMV will result in consumers turning away from card-based transaction in lieu of mobile payments.

"It was interesting, and frankly a bit surprising, to see data that so strongly indicates a belief that consumers will move away from physical cards in lieu of mobile," said Dan Heimann, consulting manager, ACI Worldwide and vice-chairman, EMV steering committee, U.S. EMV Migration Forum. "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. Given these findings, I'm more intrigued than ever to watch the rollout and adoption rates for EMV cards."

Additionally, as the migration toward EMV continues in the U.S., those surveyed admitted that there are challenges to rolling out the new payment systems. When asked what specifically they felt would be the biggest challenge to EMV implementation, respondents answered as follows:

Nearly one in three (32 percent) noted that rolling out hardware updates (like POS terminals, ATMs, etc.) would present the largest issue
26 percent believed the biggest challenge would be educating and training business constituents along with driving consumer awareness and adoption
24 percent said they were most concerned about meeting compliance and liability shift deadlines

When asked what trend will have the biggest impact on banking and retail over the next six to 12 months, only 15 percent noted that uniform EMV standards will catapEMV standards will catapult adoption and rollout.

"Mobile and contactless payments are important drivers to EMV adoption in the U.S. and the results of our latest survey certainly affirm what we've been speaking with our customers about over the last few years," said Heimann. "Due to the impending deadline for the liability shift, we are seeing forward-thinking merchants and retailers take this opportunity to ensure that they have the hardware and infrastructure in place to accept contact EMV cards, contactless (NFC) EMV cards and EMV mobile payments."

Industry Monitoring Mobile Wallet Adoption: Who Will Own the Customer?

As mobile banking and payments each continue to grow in popularity and market penetration, many within the industry are watching closely to see if and when mobile wallets will begin to gain meaningful consumer adoption.

When asked to identify which banking and payments solution is most likely to be adopted within the next year, more than 60 percent of survey respondents selected either mobile banking (35 percent) or mobile payments (27 percent). Interestingly, however, this focus on mobile did not include mobile wallets. Despite significant market coverage and awareness of mobile wallets and the push toward mobile aggregation, just one in 10 respondents of the ACI survey believed that mobile wallets will become widely adopted over the next two years.

Additionally, 14 percent believed that EMV cards will be most widely adopted, while 13 percent selected online and mobile bill pay services.

"So much time and attention have been paid to the rise of the mobile wallet," said Matt Ellis, SVP, Online and Mobile, ACI Worldwide. "But our findings show that banks and retailers alike may not be willing to relinquish control to third-party providers just yet. Our survey is a clear affirmation that as mobile continues to evolve, you're going to see bank and retail brands work hard to maintain ownership of their mobile channels."

Mobile also dominated the trends that banking and payment experts believe will shape the industry over the next six to 12 months. When asked what trend would have the biggest impact on the banking and retail industries over that time horizon, respondents answered as follows:

19 percent believed it would be the adoption of mobile banking
12 percent believed more banks will offer online/mobile bill pay services
11 percent believed that industry and regulatory mandates will slow mobile rollout

When asked to identify the biggest obstacle for banks and retailers looking to implement mobile solutions, those surveyed selected:

Fraud (35 percent);
Lack of integration with core system software (27 percent);
Implementing hardware infrastructure to support mobile (15 percent);
Lack of consistent industry standards (13 percent);
Lack of market interest (7 percent) and
Competition from new entrants (4 percent).

About the Survey

The survey of 201 retail, banking and processor professionals was conducted by ACI Worldwide at the 2013 ACI Exchange Americas Conference in Boston, MA from June 4-6. ACI Exchange is an annual gathering of ACI customers and partners focused on innovation in banking and payments.