The roles of processors often differ considerably from country to country depending upon the types of card most commonly issued, and as a result of the historical development of the industry. Each country has different rules governing issuer and acquirer processing. Debit schemes are generally operated by the issuing bank, although in a few countries an interbank processor is involved alongside the banks. The main aims of moving to chip are to improve security, to reduce credit risk and to lower operational costs by reducing the number of authorisations and on-line transactions. However, the business case for conversion is far from conclusive and banks are looking for other applications to place on the chip to help justify the cost.
European countries are in the vanguard of converting their payment cards to carry a chip.
Nevertheless, while France has already converted all its bank payment cards to chip and countries such as Germany and Austria are well advanced, others have yet to start. Nevertheless no country as yet carries out credit, charge and debit card transactions using the EMV standard. The new generation of cards and terminals will be to EMV standards but they will not be implemented for several years. Only the UK has started implementation with one bank issuing cards. Most other European countries are committed to move to EMV standards for cards and terminals for debit and credit transactions.