Registered users can unlock up to five pieces of premium content each month.
Payment Cards Market Update |
NEWS |
ABI Research recently published its latest edition of the Payment and Banking Card Technologies (MD- PBSC-22) Market Data and Payment and Banking Card Technologies (PT-2195) Technological Analysis Report, a biannual publication. The data base contains detailed information regarding the traditional contact and contactless payment cards market and provides an analysis of next-generation form factors, most notably the rising biometric payment cards opportunity.
This ABI Insight will provide a top-level overview of the traditional payment cards market as it relates to market volumes, trends, and likely future outcomes, concluding with some top-level thoughts and analysis related to the notable shift in vendor strategies toward the new innovative biometric smart card form factor.
What the Data Tells Us |
IMPACT |
![]() |
The above dynamics will likely translate into a future market capable of YoY growth in the 2-4% range. Although growing, the rate is slowing and long gone are the days when EMV migration programs translated into double digit YoY growth rates. As a subsequent result, ecosystem players are looking toward the development of new innovative card form factors in order to draw out future market value and look toward markets in which large levels of growth are feasible, with one of the most notable today being that of the biometric smart card.
Biometric Payment Cards Now a Question of When, Rather than If |
RECOMMENDATIONS |
The biometric smart card ecosystem continues to develop and expand, with multiple players looking toward the integration of a biometric sensor into a card form factor as a primary driver toward the next generation of market growth. Notable vendors include Gemalto, IDEMIA, Giesecke+Devrient (G+D), IDEX Biometrics, Next Biometrics, FPC, MeReal Biometrics, Kona, Tactilis, Zwipe, Golpac, XH Smart, Feitian Technologies, Huada Electronic Design Co. (HED), Silicon Card Tech, and SmartMetric, to name but a few, with the list of active vendors expanding.
This year, several significant biometric smart card market milestones were reached, marking the first signs of market positivity:
The market is moving in the right direction, and vendors are beginning to focus market position and partnerships on certain regions and cementing strategic partnerships in order to address mass production and cost down efforts. Certification for mass deployments is now expected in late 2019, early 2020, and most vendors have now marked 2020 to 2021 as the year in which significant mass volumes will begin to be deployed.
Today, pilots are continuing, and some are expected to reach completion at the end of 2019 or early 2020. Pilots take several months to execute, and are then typically followed by evaluation processes at a similar time scale; pilots that took place in 2018 and 1H 2019 are those likely to scale in 2021.
Ecosystems continue to be forged and strategic partnerships continue to be announced, making 2019 a notable year for the biometric smart card. Vendors are strategically targeting certain regions and partnering with other vendors that can aid in ramping up production and ultimately help reduce production costs, with ecosystem players targeting a card price point of sub-US$10 over the next three to five years.
The market is looking extremely positive. Ecosystem players are forging ahead with technology developments related to card products, enrollment solutions, certification, and cost-down strategies as pilots continue and finalize, which will result in first-level issuance ramping, moving from the supply of hundreds of thousand toward the million mark as early as 2020 or 2021.