There was sustained growth in the worldwide adoption of EMV chip technology last year, according to the latest figures from EMVCo. The number of EMV payment cards in global circulation increased by 1.4 billion during 2015 to reach 4.8 billion by the end of the year.

Furthermore, EMVCo reported that 35.8 per cent of all card-present transactions conducted between January and December 2015 used EMV chip technology, up from 32 per cent for the same period in 2014.

In Europe Zone 1, the adoption rate of EMV chip cards rose 0.8 percentage points to reach 84.3 per cent, while the adoption rate in Europe Zone 2 increased 11.9 percentage points to hit 52.3 per cent. Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean grew to 71.7 per cent while Africa and the Middle East also increased to 61.2 per cent.

EMV chip transactions accounted for 97.3 per cent of card-present payments in Europe Zone 1, 87.9 per cent in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, and 87.1 per cent in Africa and the Middle East. Transactions reached 71.8 per cent of card-present payments in Europe Zone 2, while significant advances were made in Asia Pacific – EMV transactions rose to 40.3 per cent, almost a 50 per cent increase from 2014.

Since adopting the technology in the last couple of years, EMV transition in the US “started to accelerate in 2015 and is continuing apace the first half of 2016”, EMVCo said.

Mike Matan, chair of the EMVCo executive committee, commented: “The global adoption of the EMV specifications is imperative to the development of a more secure and interoperable payments industry. 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.”

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