Re: restaurants:
"I think people are just going to remain non-compliant. I think EMV is likely to be passed by mobile payments in some sectors, and I think restaurants is one of them."
So far the viable EMV solutions for US table service restaurants appear to be the following:
- TableSafe: possibly expensive, POS and acquirer/processor integration capability unknown.
- Square: might work once their EMV reader comes out, but if the restaurant has another POS it will be expensive to switch and require retraining.
- Non-portable FD/Verifone/Ingenico/etc. terminal separate from the POS: meets requirements relatively inexpensively but no POS integration. Potential customer service issues with PIN preferring cardholders (e.g. having to walk them to the waiter's station for PIN entry).
- Portable wireless terminal: no POS integration. Very expensive, requires retraining and having the waitstaff watch while patrons pay may make Americans uncomfortable (yes, I've heard that as a complaint elsewhere before). OTOH, possibly worthwhile if your restaurant is in a tourist area.
- Not bothering: nothing changes other than fraud liability. Probably the cheapest option until someone uses a cloned card to pay for an expensive dinner.
TableSafe is probably the closest to "being the same" that implements EMV but very few restaurants seem to know about them.
IMO whoever comes up with a viable EMV terminal that integrates with existing restaurant POSes and does not require the restaurant to change anything (e.g. chip and signature with no PIN support so cards can still be taken from tables) will own the market. I don't think table payments the way Europe does them are really all that viable in the US unfortunately.