U.S., China EMV Moves Also Will Drive Global Growth In Contactless Card Shipments, Report Says

EMV chip card directives in the U.S. and China also should drive significant global growth in contactless smart card orders, new research suggests.

United Kingdom-based IMS Research says its expects shipments of cards that support contactless payment to increase to 3.5 billion in 2016 from approximately 950 million this year. 

In the U.S., Visa Inc. announced its EMV directive last month (see story).

 “Visa’s announcement in August will definitely kick-start and help to drive EMV migration in the USA,” Don Tait, IMS senior market analyst, tells PaymentsSource. “I see this announcement as being positive, and it will help mass migration to EMV” between 2012 and 2016, he says.

 This year, 15% of shipped smart cards included a contactless function, and the percentage should grow to 30% by 2016, Tait said in the report “The World Market for Smart Cards and Smart Card ICs, 2011 Edition.” 

China’s plans to migrate to chip cards also will help drive shipments of contactless cards, says Tait. 

In March, the People’s Bank of China announced a directive mandating a migration of the country’s debit and credit cards to smart cards, Tait noted. All financial institutions in China must be ready to issue financial smart cards by Jan. 1, 2013, and by 2015 all new cards issued must be smart cards, he said.

An IMS Research report earlier this year estimated that China would ship more than 1 billion smart cards by 2016 (see story)

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