NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger criticized the request in an April 2 letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, arguing that retailers should be subject to the same data security standards financial institutions are required to follow by law.

"As credit unions and their 100 million members continue to suffer as a direct result of recent merchant and retailer data breaches, FMI is more concerned about the cost of complying with the EMV standards and how quickly they can process transactions than it is about consumers and doing everything they can to protect their customers from future breaches," he wrote.

A delay in the EMV deadline means credit unions could continue to be on the hook for costs associated with merchant data breaches. They average $226,000 per credit union and only 0.5% of that is expected to be recouped, Berger said.

But Keith Orfanides, an executive vice president at the $252 million, 38,000-member ServU Federal Credit Union in Painted Post, N.Y., said changing the deadline could be the right thing for credit unions because continued delays from vendors such as Fiserv and Jack Henry & Associates are making his efforts to offer EMV-compliant debit cards and ATMs by October less and less likely.

"With Fiserv EFT, we actually had to sign an agreement to get in the queue," he said. "We have paid half of our fee to get an EMV project going for debit card issuance, but we most definitely do not have a timeline."

"As of today, the word from Fiserv EFT is that they are sure it will be ready by October," Orfanides added. "But it's only in pilot right now. They are only in pilot on acquiring. That makes me nervous. I sure hope they're right."

Jack Henry & Associates, he said, has been able to issue EMV credit cards for some time, though ServU uses the vendor for debit cards.

"They're not ready for debit," he noted.

Though October is still months away, Orfanides' faith that key vendors will be ready is fading. "You have so many clients and so many business hours in a day. Just do the simple math. Divide time by client. There isn't enough time to get everybody done," he said. "What I know is I am in a queue. I've done what I can do. I've put us in a queue. We'll try to get there, you know? We'll do the very best we can to be ready for the acquiring and for the card issuance."

There are the ATMs to worry about, too, he said.

"Just like a merchant has to be ready to acquire EMV and put out all those new terminals, we have to be ready to acquire at our ATMs," he explained.

ServU contacted the ATM hardware companies last year and bought equipment, but without the right software, they're useless for EMV, he added.

Orfanides said he has little to offer in the way of advice to other anxious credit unions.

"You have no leverage," he said. "You can't say, 'I'm going to take my business elsewhere.' There's no time for that."

Continued fraud costs aside, he explained he believes the big consequence could be public relations.

"We have members who are going to pay attention," he said. "They're going to call us up and say, 'Hey, should I have a chip in my card? I want to have a chip in my card.' I have to have that ability. I don't know for sure that I'm going to. I know we'll get it eventually. I just don't know if it's going to be October."

Orfanides said he is trying to keep things in perspective.

"We're not going to be fined," he said. "There is no penalty that's going to come up from Visa or anything. With our board of directors, I'm careful not to overemphasize the liability shift."

And in some regard, he said he agrees with Berger.

"Mr. Berger's out there and he took an opportunity to go after the merchants," he said. "You know what? I'm there. I'm there with that. I happen to be one who thinks right now the merchants may be more dangerous to us than banks. They just might be. We seem to be in their line of sight. They want to reduce expenses. They want reduced interchange. I understand that. It's going to hurt the bottom line. There's no question about it. The problem is, I don't feel any better about it than they do. I really don't."

So for now, Orfanides said he will continue to watch the clock while he sits in an awkward holding pattern.

"I have at least two vendors that are good vendors – no complaints – but they're not ready," he added. "I'm rooting for them. I am."

Fiserv and Jack Henry & Associates did not respond to requests for comment.