BOSTON – Despite the hacking theft of some 40 million debit and credit card numbers from Target Corp. last year, most banks say they are not yet ready to begin large-scale distribution of the more secure cards that are common in Europe, according to a Boston Globe article.

Card issuers have said the Target breach has spurred them to work harder to meet an October 2015 deadline to replace the current cards with ones whose microchips generate unique codes for every transaction. So-called chip cards — also known as smart cards and EMV cards — make it more difficult for thieves to make and use fake cards, although they do not secure the cards against data breaches. (For more on data security, read “Half Covered” in the May issue of NACS Magazine.)

But, in a new report by Boston-based consultancy, Aite Group, they estimate that 30% of credit cards and nearly 60% of debit cards will not have the new technology by October 2015.

After that date, the payment processors Visa and MasterCard have said, any card issuer or retailer that has not adopted the new technology will foot the bill for any fraudulent transaction that could have been prevented by EMV chips.

“It’s disappointing, because consumers needed more secure payments technology yesterday, not tomorrow,” Christina Tetreault, a staff attorney for Consumers Union advocacy group, told the Boston Globe.

Aite Group’s report, released earlier this week, included interviews with 18 of the top 40 credit card issuers in the United States. Only one of the seven largest card issuers surveyed by Aite said it was planning to have all of its cards embedded with EMV technology by October 2015.

Aite Group also analyzed conditions in five countries that have made the switch to EMV cards and found that fraud committed with counterfeit cards has dropped by about half. However, EMV technology has not curbed theft in one important area: purchases made online. There, Aite found that fraud is on the rise around the world, even in countries with chip cards.