There has been a surge in the number of payment cards globally according to research firm EMVCo. It said official figures showed a global increase of 1.4 billion last year.
2015 ended with 4.8 billion payment cards worldwide, compared with 3.4 billion at the end of 2014. The body that sets EMV standards added that globally, 35.8 percent of all card-present transactions conducted in 2015 used EMV chip technology, up from 32 percent over 2014.
A statement by EMVCo revealed that these statistics highlight the increasing adoption of EMV chip cards in mature markets.
Year-over-year adoption rates are as follows: Europe Zone 1 — 84.3 percent, up from 83.5 percent; Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean — 71.7 percent, up from 59.5 percent; Africa and the Middle East — 61.2 percent, up from 50.5 percent; Europe Zone 2 — 52.3 percent, up from 40.4 percent; and Asia-Pacific — 32.7 percent, up from 25.4 percent.
In terms of the percentage of card present transactions using EMV chip cards, the rates were: Europe Zone 1 — 97.3 percent; Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean — 87.9 percent; Africa and the Middle East — 87.1 percent; Europe Zone 2 — 71.8 percent; and Asia Pacific — 40.3 percent (a nearly 50 percent increase over 2014).
The EMVCo release did not cite figures for the U.S., where EMV liability shifts did not come into play until October 2015.
