Study: Smart payment sector enjoys steady growth

Demand for added security and more intelligent "ways-to-pay" are on the rise, according to Smart Payment Association (SPA) in its annual review of the payment smart cards market.

According to the figures, the smart payment sector remained robust in 2009, showing steady growth throughout the year. Expansion is expected to continue at pace in 2010.

The Americas proved to be one of the most significant growth markets for Payment Chip Cards in 2009, with shipments growing 36 percent. Asia Pacific returned an 18 percent growth rate, while cards shipped into Europe & CISMEA grew by 14.5 percent, despite the mature marketplace in Western Europe.

In total, more than 675 million smart payment cards were shipped in 2009 — up 16 percent year on year from 2008. This figure is set to increase in 2010 as increasing numbers of countries migrate to the EMV payment standard. This figure confirms the position of SPA as the reference organization for the Smart Payment Industry as it represents 86 percent of the total available market, according to a press release.

Global enthusiasm for payment innovation — enhancing security and convenience — was clear during 2009 with contactless technology gaining ground as dual interface card shipments reached mass market, showing growth levels of 150 percent.

In line with continued year on year growth, Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA) technology also continued to gain market share, with the number of cards shipped increasing by 34 percent. This highlights the continued commitment of card issuers, retailers and all other members of the payments value chain to minimize card fraud. DDA adoption and its business case are discussed in more depth in the whitepaper published by SPA.