China adopts smart cards for payments

With this announcement, one of the last major pockets of resistance to payment smart cards expansion is subduing. Since its launch EMV has been adopted by all regions, both from their own initiative and under pressure from Visa and MasterCard in all world regions, so far with the significant exceptions of the USA and China.

Now that a planning has been established for China EMV migration, only the USA are left remaining with an obsolete unsecure technology, the magnetic stripe. Already, we see some initiatives in the US going towards a conversion to smart cards, but no global decision has been made yet.

The adoption of smart card based banking cards in China is good news for our industry, not only in the short term as a new market, but also as it paves the way for a total adoption of smart card technology, and for a further adoption of the next steps in technology such as contactless cards and NFC, on a global basis.

Thierry Spanjaard

Chief Editor

Smart Insights