CARTES America: China, Europe Driving Strongest Global EMV Card Growth (April 23, 2013)
EMV chip-enabled card growth continued at a healthy clip worldwide last year but China and Europe led demand, according to new data the Smart Payment Association (SPA) released today at the annual CARTES America meeting in Las Vegas. EMV card production overall rose 9 percent last year to 975 million cards, up from 898 million a year ago, the nonprofit Munich–based organization said. In China, chip-enabled card production rose 24 percent in 2012 compared with a year earlier, while Europe saw an increase of 8 percent last year over 2011, the SPA said. North America’s chip-enabled card production rose 1 percent.
As the EMV card standard takes hold worldwide, markets are embracing chip cards at different rates, Brian Russell, senior vice president of payment and transit for card manufacturer Giesecke & Devrient, one of six SPA members, tells Paybefore. Canada completed its move to EMV in 2011, and China is in the midst of its conversion, he noted. “While some U.S. banks are issuing a limited number of EMV cards, we expect to see chip-card activity begin in earnest in the U.S. beginning in 2014,” Russell says. U.S. payment networks have established Oct. 1, 2015, as the EMV liability shift date for parties that have not swapped older magnetic stripe cards/terminals for chip-enabled cards/terminals. Contactless payment cards now account for about 23 percent of all chip-equipped cards manufactured, according to the SPA. “A growing number of banks around the world are leaning toward issuing dual-interface cards that support both contact and contactless payment, which is helping to lay the groundwork for mobile payments,” Russell adds.
