Payments

Payment card shipments drop slightly in 2022

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October 11, 2022

Payment card shipments will hit 3.029 billion in 2022, a drop from 3.11 billion shipments in 2021, according to ABI Research. Overall, the market has been more resilient to the chip shortage than previously anticipated.

"Despite another year of issuance decline, the market was able to minimize the impact owing to closer collaboration with issuing banks and by utilizing existing stock levels to minimize supply impacts. Better than expected activity in Latin America, alongside a continuation of low-level growth in Europe, near counterbalanced significant market reductions in North America, which declined YoY, driven by the U.S. and its reissuance cycles," Sam Gazeley, digital payment technologies research analyst at ABI Research, said in a press release.

The market will see more chips available by the end of 2023, but the recovery will not match pre-COVID levels due to continuing inflation and chip supply issues.

"A recovery to standard issuance levels will likely not become a reality until around 2025, coinciding with the resolution of supply constraints, replenishment of depleted stock and, from 2023, an increase in chip production which will close the gap between demand and supply," Gazeley said.