Contactless payment cards forecast to account for over 50% of all cards delivered globally in 2018

Over 50% of all cards delivered globally in 2018 are contactless. Source: pexels.com

Contactless payment card issuance is set to hit 1.5 billion units in 2018, accounting for over 50% of all payment card shipments delivered globally, according to ABI Research’s Payment & Banking Card Technologies report.

Breaking the 50% barrier marks a significant milestone in contactless card migration, where market momentum is expected to continue due to next-generation migration opportunities, most notably in the U.S., India, South East Asia, and Latin America. These opportunities are helping to push contactless card issuance volumes toward 2.3 billion annually by 2022.

The buzz in contactless migration and market expectations has been further heightened thanks to the contactless migration mandates put in place in Latin America and South East Asia. With short deadlines, set by Visa and MasterCard, coming into effect in October 2018 for POS terminals and April 2019 for new card issuance respectively, all eyes are pinned toward these two regions as significant growth areas for the contactless payment card interface.

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