EFTPOS transactions account for 51 percent of all transactions in Australia and 80 percent of debit-card transactions, according to the organization. But those cards do not have the EMV chip, which makes the cards more vulnerable to counterfeiting. EPAL maintains that it has bolstered the security of proprietary debit cards, but would not give specific details.

EPAL has held off moving its cards to EMV, but plans over the next couple of years to begin deploying the cards. EMV is viewed as a "housekeeping" issue, according to a spokesman.

Retailers in Australia were required to have EMV-capable payment terminals in April. If they do not have those terminals, retailers can be liable for losses due to fraud, according to compliance deadlines.

But Australia's ATM fleet, which comprises more than 30,000 machines around the country, has not been upgraded so quickly.

Fitting an ATM for EMV, which can involve hardware and software upgrades, is not trivial. Making an ATM EMV-compliant is labor intensive, said Issa Keshek, who specializes in ATM EMV compliance for the company Clear2Pay and has worked with Australian banks. The machines need to undergo thousands of tests to ensure they will work with different card types.