Smart Payment Cards to Ship In Excess of 2.8 billion Units in 2017 Driven by Increasing Smart/EMV Migration in the U.S, China, and Latin America’s Region

​EMV/smart payment card volumes continue to rapidly increase with Latin America a particular migration hot spot in 2012, the US’s impending move to EMV, and China’s migration to its PBOC 2.0 standard. Collectively these regions shipped in excess of 330 million smart payment cards in 2011, forecast to increase to over 1.5 billion in 2017.

Opportunities within the smart payment cards market remain vast and not limited to a particular region. The U.S now looks certain to migrate, although no official nationwide mandate has been set, mandates in liability shift from Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Discover all support the adoption of EMV. Financial institutions in the region have been quick to react with approximately 19 to date committing to EMV migration.

Research analyst Phil Sealy comments, “In addition to the US, China remains a clear emerging opportunity within the smart payments card market. It is currently in the process of migrating to its PBOC 2.0 standard as well as issuing up to 800 million multi-application cards combining payment and social security functionality, using dual interface technology. China also has one of the fastest growing banking populations worldwide putting more emphasis on the importance of the region. ABI Research forecasts that 25% of all smart payment card shipments will be issued within China in 2017.”

Practice director John Devlin adds, “Together Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina account for the largest proportion of payment cards within the Latin American region. With migration to EMV and a growing banking population, combined shipments are forecast to increase from 180 million in 2011 to 315 million in 2017. Increased activity in the region this year has resulted in other surrounding countries following suit and adopting EMV. The regional business pipeline looks good with Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Chile all beginning migration in 2012.”

Forecasted payment card data is split into smart and mag-stripe applications with further granularity supplied for smart cards with all data broken down by product and technology type (ATM only, Credit Card, Debit Card, Pre Paid, Contact, Pure Contactless, and Dual Interface). POS terminal data is presented for both contact and contactless applications.

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Payment and Banking Cards & Contactless Technologies Research Service.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.