SINGAPORE — Visa Asia Pacific announced three new markets have hit the 1-million mark with their Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV) chip-card deployments. EMV is the global standard for chip-based credit and debit transactions, and is the foundation for emerging payments such as contactless and mobile solutions.
In December , Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand joined Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia in the 1-million chip-card club from Visa's member banks.
Australia's EMV chip card base doubled from September 2006 to December 2006 quarters, hitting more than 1.4 million cards; Hong Kong's base of 400,000 chip cards grew to more than 1 million during the same period; and Thailand experienced a 15-fold from 2005 to 2006 to hit 1 million.
The results represent a 46 percent year-to-year increase in EMV card deployment in the region that's consistent with annual chip-card growth over the last three years in Asia-Pacific.
"We now have more than 63 million EMV chip cards in the Asia-Pacific, representing 19 percent of Visa's card base," said Jack Pan, regional head of chip migration for Visa Asia Pacific. "Combined with the 1.68 million EMV chip terminals deployed, Visa and its member financial institutions are helping to create a secure and advanced chip payment foundation."
