Global EMV Chip Cards Approach 5 Billion

Global technical body EMVCo has released its updated report on the number of EMV chip payment cards, saying that the figure has increased 1.4 billion in a year’s time.

That brings the total at the end of 2015 to 4.8 billion across the world. EMVCo has also provided updates about EMV chip-based transaction volumes. The data showed that 35.8 percent of all card-present transactions conducted globally between Jan. and Dec. 2015 used chip technology, which was up slightly from 32 percent for the same period in 2014.

EMVCo also broke down EMV chip card adoption rate by regions:

• Europe Zone 1: 84.3% (up from 83.5% in 2014)
• Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean: 71.7% (up from 59.5% in 2014)
• Africa and the Middle East: 61.2% (up from 50.5% in 2014)
• Europe Zone 2: 52.3% (up from 40.4% in 2014)
• Asia-Pacific: 32.7% (up from 25.4% in 2014)

Of the regions reviewed in the report, Europe Zone 1 had the highest percentage of chip card transactions with 97.3 percent of card-present payments. The data also showed that 87.9 percent of card-present transactions were EMV chip-enabled in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean; usage grew to 87.1 percent in Africa and the Middle East.

In Europe Zone 2, chip transactions hit 71.8 percent of card-present payments. Asia-Pacific also saw strong growth with the percentage of card-present chip transactions rising to 40.3 percent — nearly a 50 percent increase from 2014.

“The global adoption of the EMV specifications is imperative to the development of a more secure and interoperable payments industry,” commented Mike Matan, current chair of the EMVCo executive committee. “EMVCo welcomes engagement with interested parties from across the payments ecosystem and supports a number of initiatives to enable the payments community to be actively involved in developing, enhancing and evolving future specifications.”