EMVCo Sees Growth Of EMV Chip Payments

EMVCo, the technical body, announced Wednesday (Dec. 14) there has been year-over-year growth in the number of contact and contactless card present payments using EMV chips.

In a press release, EMVCo said that between July 2015 and June 2016 there was a 42.4 percent increases in the number of transactions globally that were EMV-compliant. That was compared to a 33 percent increase for the previous 12-month period. According to EMVCo, in order to qualify for an EMV transaction, a card and terminal must be EMV-enabled. EMVCo noted that real-time figures for transaction volumes as of today will likely be higher than the July 2015 to June 2016 reporting period since more merchants are adopting EMV-enabled cards and terminals.

“The progress of EMV chip technology worldwide promotes the implementation of an interoperable payments framework, supporting an advancing range of payment methods, technologies and acceptance environments,” stated Soumya Chakrabarty, EMVCo executive committee chair, in the press release. “In addition to increasing global usage, the most recent data shows rapid adoption of EMV technology in regions that have recently implemented EMV chip infrastructures, such as the United States and China. With this continued migration, EMVCo expects these figures to increase in the coming year, which could mean that global EMV transaction volumes would exceed half of all card-present payments.”

On a regional basis, EMVCo said the data shows that Africa and the Middle East accounted for 89.9 percent of all card-present EMV transactions, while Asia came in second, with EMV transactions representing 57.9 percent of all card present transactions. In Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, EMV transactions accounted for 88.8 percent of all card-present transactions. In Europe Zone 1, EMV transactions accounted for 97.6 percent of all card-present transactions, while in Europe Zone 2, EMV transactions accounted for 75 percent of all card-present transactions. EMVCo said the number of EMV transactions in the U.S. continued to accelerate throughout the year.