SPA releases 2015 smart payment card shipment figures

Over 2 billion smart payment cards shipped globally in 2015

Smart Payment Association (SPA), the trade body of the smart payments industry, has released the findings from its annual review of the smart payment cards market.

Data collated by the SPA from its members reveal 2060 million payment chip cards were shipped globally in 2015. This represents an increase of 34% on last year’s figures.

The gathering pace of EMV migration in the United States played a major factor in the uplift of worldwide shipment figures. In 2015, SPA members report making 570 million smart payment card shipments to the US - a two-fold increase on 2014 numbers. High volume shipments in China are contributing too with a 27% growth versus previous year.

Demand for contactless payment cards continued to surge in geographies where the technology already has a foothold. In 2015, 56% of all smart card shipments globally (excluding the Americas) featured contactless technology – a 24% growth as compared to the year before.

As in previous years, much of this increase was driven by demand in Europe and Asia. Last year, 53% of all cards shipped in Europe were contactless, while in the Asia Pacific region an impressive 74% of cards featured contactless technologies.

Andreas Strobel, President of the SPA, commented: “These figures demonstrate how EMV is now a truly global, established, secure and interoperable infrastructure. SPA reported the first billion of smart payment card shipments in 2011 and it took the industry only 4 years to deliver the second billion.

Crucially, the data also reveals how fast the adoption of EMV-standard technology in the United States took off in a significant way in 2015, as issuers proceeded at full speed with the implementation of EMV migration.

Consumer demand for faster and more convenient ways to pay proved the driving force behind a further steep growth in contactless shipments in Europe and Asia. With EMV adoption powering ahead in the US, issuers are in a unique position to make the jump directly from ‘swipe and sign’to ‘tap & go’ to everyone’s benefit : customers, merchants and them as well.”

For more analysis of the contactless market drivers and benefits, read the SPA White Paper "An Overview of Contactless Payment Benefits and Worldwide Deployments - Food for thought for US issuers" April 2016 at www.smartpaymentassociation.com.

The SPA’s analysis of 2015 payment trends also highlights the growing significance of Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA), the technology which provides smart payment cards with high levels of protection against modification of data and card cloning. In 2015, 76% of all cards shipped featured DDA technology – an increase of 46% on the previous year. Figures gathered by the SPA from its members also confirm that DDA adoption proceeded steadily in all global territories.

The detailed figures compiled by the SPA also reveal smart payment cards based on open operating systems reached 70 % of total market share in 2015, a significant 58% growth on previous year’s figures.