Compared to its neighbors – Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean – the U.S. still isn't "keeping up with the Joneses" in EMV adoption, according to new data from EMVCo, which manages and tests EMV specifications for chips, payments, card personalization and tokenization.
According to the data, EMV chip card adoption rates increased in every region of the world by the end of 2014, and 32% of all chip card-present transactions in 2014 used EMV technology.
The highest adoption rate continues to be Europe Zone 1, which comprises 37 countries, at 83.5%, up from 81.6% in 2013. The U.S. had the lowest adoption rate in 2014 at just 7.3%.
Africa and the Middle East showed an adoption rate of 50.5%, up from 38.9% in 2013; Europe Zone 2 had an adoption rate of 40.4% versus 24.4% in 2013; and the Asia Pacific region posted a 25.4% adoption rate versus 17.4% in 2013.
The data came from EMVCo's members, which include American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, UnionPay and Visa, for the end of 2014.
"From a regional perspective, the highest volumes of EMV transactions are occurring in regions with a significant base of deployed EMV cards and established acceptance infrastructures," Sean Conroy, current chair of the EMVCo board of managers, said. "We are, however, pleased to note a significant acceleration of card issuance in the U.S. throughout the course of last year."
Here's a closer look at the U.S.'s current state of EMV adoption versus the neighbors, according to some of EMVCo's official figures for Q4 2014:
Percentage of EMV card-present transactions in the U.S.:
July 2013 – June 2014: 0.03%
January 2014 – December 2014: 0.12%
Percentage of EMV card-present transactions in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean:
July 2013 – June 2014: 83.33%
January 2014 – December 2014: 85.41%
2013 EMV adoption rate in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean: 54.2%
2014 EMV adoption rate in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean: 59.5%
2013 EMV adoption rate in the U.S.: 0%
2014 EMV adoption rate in the U.S.: 7.3%
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