EMV technology and use climbing worldwide
by. Brandon Kuehl
The global spread of EMV cards continues, with new statistics showing a significant increase in the number of EMV payment cards in circulation.
Specifically, a new report from EMVCo shows there were more than 2 billion EMV payment cards in circulation worldwide by the end of 2013. That’s up from 1.6 billion the year before. Additionally, the number of active EMV terminals jumped from 23 million to 37 million over the same time period.
The highest number of EMV cards in circulation at the end of 2013 was in the Asia Pacific region, which had 942 million cards and an adoption rate of 71 percent. However, the Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean region boasted the highest adoption rate at nearly 85 percent. There were 471 million cards in circulation in this region at the end of 2013.
“These are impressive figures,” said Dave Meadon, EMVCo executive committee chair. “The continued adoption of EMV chip cards and terminals globally emphasizes the important role this technology plays in securing physical payment transactions.”
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