EMVCo announced tremendous growth this week in the number of contact and contactless card-present payments using EMV chips at businesses accepting credit cards.
According to a statement from EMVCo, 42% of transactions globally were EMV-compliant between July 2015 and June 2016, compared to 33% for the previous 12-month period. In order to qualify as an EMV-compliant transaction, both the card and terminal must be EMV-enabled. EMVCo also stated that real-time transaction volumes will likely be higher than the July 2015 to June 2016 reporting period since the adoption of EMV-enabled terminals and cards is still ongoing for businesses accepting credit cards and consumers who pay with them.
“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,” said Soumya Chakrabarty, EMVCo executive committee chair said in a 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.”
The number of EMV-compliant transactions in the United States continued to make a splash in 2016. Comparatively, regional data shows that in the Middle East and Africa, EMV transactions were the highest and accounted for almost 90% of all card-present transactions (up from 83.8% in 2014-2015). In Asia, EMV transactions accounted for nearly 60% of card-present transactions; in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean, almost 90% of card-present transactions were EMV-compliant; and Europe Zone 1 saw EMV transactions at 98% of all card-present transactions. Bear in mind, EMV has existed in Europe for over 20 years.
For more about how to accept credit cards in an EMV world, check out the following:
- October 27, 2016 – Retail Merchants: Take a Deep Breath if You Accept Credit Card Payments
- October 3, 2016 — HBD, EMV! How to Accept Credit Cards Still Affected One Year Later
