EMV Adoption Continues to Increase Globally (With U.S. Still Behind)
There were 6.1 billion EMV payment cards in global circulation in 2016, up from 1.3 billion a year ago, according to data released by EMVCo today.
More than half of the card-present transactions in that period used EMV chip technology, up from 35% last year, according to the report. Europe led the pack with the adoption of the EMV technology, while the U.S. is still lagging behind, despite a significant increase this year.
From the report:
Implementation of the EMV chip infrastructure globally offers real benefits to merchants, acquirers, card issuers and consumers as the specifications support features for reducing the fraud that results from counterfeit and lost and stolen payment cards. Therefore, the higher the adoption of EMV technology worldwide, the more robust the entire infrastructure becomes. We also recognize that more recent data will reflect higher adoption rates than the January to December 2016 reporting period, given the current pace of migration in regions such as the US and Asia.
