Boston, June 21, 2009 -- EMV continues to make inroads around the world especially in Europe, Latin America and Canada. However, growth has slowed down partially due to the impacts of the global economic downturn with banks forced to slow down or postpone their migration plans. In some cases these plans are put on hold indefinitely. The outlook beyond 2010 is less than clear as the European market gets saturated and growth pools in other regions dry up.

At the same time, as more and more countries adopted EMV, some of the inherent limitations of EMV became exposed. Though EMV has been quite effective in reducing mail-non-receipt and lost-and-stolen card frauds, it has minimal effect in handling other types of frauds especially Card-Not-Present (CNP) and counterfeit/overseas frauds. Actually, EMV's effectiveness in reducing certain types of card fraud appears to have driven card criminals toward other types of card fraud.

But the U.S., still on the sideline though neighbor pressure from Canada and Mexico, could start to break the ice.

The latest report from Mercator Advisory Group, Global EMV Migration and the European Market: 2009 provides timely updates on overall EMV migration worldwide. Progress and trends in EMV card issuance and acceptance are also discussed. Regional EMV migration overviews are provided for Europe, Asia-Pac, North America, Latin America, and Africa. EMV's effects on card fraud profiles and levels are discussed and the industry's efforts in addressing some remaining and new issues. Factors affecting future EMV migration plans around the world are also discussed. Finally, the report looks at the European market in depth and provides a country-by-country update on the EMV migration progress.

"Demand for EMV products and services will continue to be driven by the SEPA initiative in Western Europe, though emerging markets in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe have good potentials as well. China is finally moving as China UnionPay starts to replace its POS terminals," says Terry Xie, Director of Mercator Advisory Group's International Payments Advisory Service and principal analyst on the report. "But the U.S., still on the sideline though neighbor pressure from Canada and Mexico, could start to break the ice."

Highlights of the report include:

• EMV penetration among card issuance and acceptance continues to rise. However, the growth rate has slowed down significantly from previous years.
• Most of the growth in the EMV market over the next two years will be in Europe and Canada which is moving forward with its own migration. China and Latin America represent future growth opportunities, but will take time to develop.
• EMV has been quite successful in reducing lost-and-stolen and mail-not-receipt card frauds. But the industry still has its work cut out to deal with increasing CNP and counterfeit card frauds in the international and e-Commerce markets.
• Liability shift and neighbor pressures, among other factors, will likely be an increasing factor in driving EMV migration and penetration forward in the global markets.
• The European market, which faces a Dec. 2010 migration deadline, will remain strong over the next two years, even though the global economic downturn might slow down the process in 2009, but this is expected to be compensated by growth in 2010.

This report contains 35 pages and 5 exhibits.

Companies mentioned in this report include: American Express, Barclays, China UnionPay, EMVco, First Data, Garanti Bank, Gemalto, Inside Contactless, MasterCard, Nationwide, Poste Italiane, Royal Bank of Scotland, S1 Postilion, Sagem Orga, TSYS Card Tech, Visa, Xiring, among others.

Members of Mercator Advisory Group have access to these reports as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead, presentations, analyst access and other membership benefits. Please visit us online at www.mercatoradvisorygroup.com .

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Source: Company Press Release