You may have read the Popular Science article:
Thieves Stole $45 Million From ATMs Because The U.S. Uses Absurd 40-Year-Old Technology
Let me quote:
So why is the US so far behind? Infrastructure is a major factor; countries like Japan and the UK are much smaller, so replacing all the old point-of-sale machines and ATMs is easier.
Bullshit.
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.
The reason is that bank executives had the choice between paying a lot of money to do the right thing or a little money to consultants who would tell them what they wanted to hear. It's a big win for consultants.
WHY IS POPULAR SCIENCE BEING SO ANTI-CONSULTANT???
Everyone got what they asked for. What's so bad about that?
And besides, I'm sure the banks are insured for this kind of thing.
The real headline should be, "Insurance companies lose $45 million from signing contracts with banks that couldn't care less because they've signing contracts with insurance companies that remove the need for them to give a shit."
Amirite? (No, really, can someone from the banking industry confirm?)
My understanding on why the Japanese and English banks upgraded was that they went through a period of losing money with their 40 year old system and when the government finally said we aren't paying you back on this (national governments tend to be the Insurance company that banks use (or their insurance companies use)) then there was a big push to upgrade there.
There is some truth in the economies of scale though.. the stealing will need to be in the billions of dollars before the US government says "sorry you need to fix this."