September 2010: One Billion EMV Cards Active Globally
As of 1 September 2010, over one billion EMV cards and 15.4 million EMV terminals were active globally. These are the latest EMV deployment figures reported by EMVCo, the EMV standards body collectively owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa.
The official figures highlight the growing usage of EMV technology worldwide with 36% of total cards and 65% of total terminals in circulation based on the EMV standard.
In response to the market’s uptake of EMV technology globally, the standards body has reported the figures by region. Europe Zone 1 has the highest adoption of EMV technology with 555.7 million cards and 9.4 million terminals, which represents an adoption rate of 65.4% of cards and 84.7% of terminals currently active in the region. Within the Asia-Pacific region, 305.1 million cards and 3.2 million terminals were in operation, followed by the Canada, Latin American and the Caribbean region which has 182.2 million cards and two million terminals in circulation. These two regions share a similar rate of adoption with 26.6% and 26.4% of total cards, and 41.6% and 55.6% of total terminals EMV compliant respectively.
In Europe Zone 2, 22.8 million cards and 458,000 terminals are active, an adoption rate of 11.5% of cards and 61.2% of terminals; while 16.8 million cards and 348,000 terminals are deployed in Africa and the Middle East, an adoption rate of 13.7% of cards and 62.5% of terminals. The US is excluded from the figures as there are currently no EMV programmes deployed.
Jim Lee, current chair of the EMVCo executive committee, said: “Breaking down the one billion deployment figure by region enables us to clearly see the significant growth of EMV card and terminal adoption and the continued acceptance of EMV as the global payment standard worldwide. By calculating the adoption rates and illustrating the increasing percentage of active EMV card and terminals in relation to the total user base, EMVCo has additionally been able to put these figures into context and clearly demonstrate the uptake of the standard.”