In April 2015, FIS Vice President of Debit/ATM Strategy Connie Davis was speaking at a CSCU Solutions conference seminar packed with credit union executives worried about the EMV liability shift timing. Several attendees were concerned about vendor delays, some wondered about technology glitches and a few were somewhat panicked about being ready with cards and equipment on time.

Today, Davis senses a calmer mood out there.

"There wasn't any real fallout for not being ready yet," she said. "I think generally the consensus was, 'Okay, I didn't make it. What's the worst that has happened?' I don't know that I have real evidence that the sky fell."

Also in April 2015, ServU Federal Credit Union EVP Keith Orfanides was worried about whether his credit union would be ready on Oct. 1. Vendor delays were making it seem impossible for ServU to get debit cards in time.

"I was concerned about it because it's a deadline and you're supposed to make your deadline and you're supposed to do your job," Orfanides said. But because the shift wasn't a legal mandate, he said, not being 100% ready simply meant carrying the same fraud risk as before the deadline.

"It wasn't like the federal government was going to come after us or something — or Visa was going to send the cops out or something like that," he said.

Lesson #2: Too many cut corners.

Philip Andreae, VP of field marketing for North America at EMV card manufacturer Oberthur, said a major problem during the EMV transition turned out to be education. Too few people had a thorough understanding of the EMV conversion requirements, steps or processes — even trainers sometimes didn't know enough, which made matters worse, he noted.

"Most people tried to read the CliffsNotes, which therefore made everything after that harder because the communications were stilted by the least-educated person at the table," he said.

"The homework was 1) Read the EMVCo specifications; 2) Read your processor's specifications; and 3) Absorb them. Go to the class asking questions, not expecting answers," he said.

Lesson #3: Mass reissue had upside.

Many card issuers faced the tough decision of either doing an expensive mass reissue or doing a relatively cheaper natural reissue that came with probably more fraud costs. A year later, mass reissue appears to have been a good bet, Andreae said.

Credit unions that did mass reissues right away were able to start issuing chargebacks sooner — and the volume of chargebacks was high because so many retailers hadn't switched to EMV terminals yet, he explained.

The more EMV cards an issuer had out, the more of its EMV costs it could offset in chargebacks, Connie Davis added.

"It definitely covered their card issuance. They saved a significant amount of money by recovery," she said of the early issuers. Those early adopters were also able to ride more of the EMV publicity wave, she noted.

Lesson #4: Fraud didn't go away — it moved.

By most measures, the card liability shift has reduced card-present fraud. For example, counterfeit card fraud fell 35% at chip-enabled merchants by March 2016, according to Visa. Mastercard reported counterfeit card fraud fell over 60% at its top five EMV-enabled merchants by Aug. 3, 2016.

But like a stress ball that's been squeezed by EMV, for some card issuers fraud has simply moved from one area to another.

ServU FCU, for example, saw an uptick in PIN-based card fraud at ATMs for the first time.

"We really have never had a lot of problems with that," Keith Orfanides said. "We actually got hit with that earlier in the year, and it took a while for us to get that shut down. That was a little scary for a while."

The credit union also recently got hit with fraud in Italy, he added.

"You'd think over in Europe you wouldn't have any problems, but we still have issues over there, even," he said.

Orfanides observed, EMV seems to have been a zero-sum game in terms of fraud overall.

"I haven't seen it drop off at all," he said. "I see the same flow of fraud that we've had."

Looking ahead.

By now, last year's EMV liability shift would be nothing more than a story to tell the grandkids were it not for the fact that it's only the first chapter in the country's conversion to chip-based payments. Next year, another liability shift happens — this time at ATMs and gas stations.

People like Philip Andreae, who've been in the EMV trenches for the last year or two, said they've learned things that could make that next transition easier.

"I think that the banks that are ATM operators mostly are ahead of the curve," Andreae said. "I think the people who are going to lose are the convenience stores that have got ATMs that they probably don't know they need to upgrade. It's going to be the same problem: those that get ahead, win."

Others have learned to be skeptical about EMV.

"It's almost like Y2K all over again," Orfanides said. "You do all this preparation for this big event, and it's just kind of a bust."

EMV by the Numbers

Here's the latest EMV data from Visa and Mastercard.

Cards:

180.6 million: Visa EMV credit and debit cards issued, October 2015.

326.8 million: Visa EMV credit and debit cards issued, June 2016 (latest data available).

80: Percentage of Mastercard credit cards that have EMV chips as of Aug. 3, 2016.

88: Percentage increase in Mastercard EMV credit cards between Oct. 1, 2015 and Aug. 3, 2016.

Merchants:

529,000: U.S. merchants with EMV terminals, October 2015.

1.3 million: U.S. merchants with EMV terminals, June 2016.

1.7 million: U.S. merchants with EMV terminals, Aug. 3, 2016.

Use:

139 million: Number of Visa chip payment transactions, October 2015.

483 million: Number of Visa chip payment transactions, June 2016.