2.63 billion smart payment cards and modules were delivered worldwide in 2021

 

The Smart Payment Association (SPA), the trade body of the cards and mobile payments industry, released findings from its annual review of the smart payment cards market.

Led and organized by the SPA, collecting data from its own Members and participants of the SPA Market Monitoring Advisory Council, the annual analysis of the worldwide smart payment card and module market reveals a total shipment volume of 2.63 billion units in 2021.

These numbers confirm that the demand for secure payment cards continues to grow: the 2021 card volume figures are higher than in years before - except for 2019 due to one-off effects then. The SPA believes the figures would have been even higher had it not been for the chip shortage affecting the industry. SPA members suffered from chip allocations preventing them from fully serving the demand of their customers.

In 2021, SPA reported 76% of all card shipments had contactless functionality, compared to 69% in 2020 and 59% in 2019. In absolute figures, an additional 269 million contactless cards and modules were shipped in 2021 compared to the previous year, reaching the 2 billion threshold for the first time in history.

All regions posted growth versus the previous year, except the USA due to an anticipated "down-cycle" and China. Europe was the fastest growing market and CISMEA continued to grow versus the 2019 record year.