Magazines Archives - 2007 May

Visa EMV chip cards achieve new milestone in the Asia-Pacific
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AUSTRALIA, Thailand and Hong Kong have each issued one million Visa EMV chip cards distributed by Visa’s member banks, bringing the total number of Visa cards equipped with the secure chip technology to more than 63 million, the company said.

In the last quarter of 2006, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand joined Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia in the one-million chip-card club, Visa said.

Australia’s EMV chip-card base doubled between the September and December 2006 quarters to reach more than 1.4 million, while in Hong Kong, adoption rate grew from a base of 400,000 to over one million in the same period. In Thailand, the number of chip cards issued jumped 15-fold to reach the one-million mark.

Jack Pan, regional head of chip migration, Visa Asia Pacific, said the December 2006 quarter represented a 46% year-on-year growth in EMV card deployment, consistent with the annual chip-card growth over the past three years in the region.

“We now have more than 63 million EMV chip cards in the Asia-Pacific, representing 19% of Visa’s card base. 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,” said Pan.

“Since Visa announced the move to EMV chip in late 2001, we have been working closely with our member banks to ensure successful deployment of local EMV chip programs. If you compare the migration activity to building a railway network, we are working with our acquiring banks to lay the One Million EMV Chip Card Club — the network of POS terminals for cardholders to use their EMV chip cards for added security and functionality,” he added.

The December 2006 quarter also saw Thailand joining Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore with more than 80% chip POS terminal penetration, Visa said.