Celent Evaluates Smart Card Markets and Smart Payment Strategies

The analysts say smart cards, also called chip cards, will overtake magnetic stripes and revolutionize the payment industry. New growth drivers include RFID and the gradual elimination of legacy payment systems. In a new report, Smart Technology and Smart Strategies: Critiquing the Path of Chip Technology, Celent examines the evolution of smart cards and their likely impact on the US credit card market. Several factors will determine the fate of smart cards, including the threat of fraud, EMV, and the overall migration of smart cards across the world. These drivers have been assumed for quite some time; other factors, such as the elimination of cash-based systems, radio frequency technology, and the proliferation of smart technology in other industries, are spurring the renewed interest in smart cards in the US. Those close to the payments industry and with an eye on the progress of smart technology know that smart cards in the U.S. will one day take over magnetic stripes and revolutionize the payment industry, as they already have done in Europe, comments Ariana-Michele Moore, a banking analyst at Celent and author of the report. It is only a matter of when and how. We wanted to give our readers some fresh perspectives on the issue and what we believe to be realistic, and not so realistic, assumptions.