The United States posted the largest year-over-year increase inEMV-enabled transactions of anywhere in the world, according to newdata from EMVCo.

The technical body, which manages the specifications for chip-based payments, reported in Decemberthat from the period spanning July 2016 to June 2017, thepercentage of EMV-enabled transactions in the United States jumped from to31.4% from 7.2% for the prior 12-month period.

“The most recent transaction volume data indicates that we aremoving toward EMV chip technology becoming the foundation forcontact and contactless card-present payments worldwide,” EMVCoExecutive Committee Chair Jack Pan said. “As EMV chip migrationapproaches maturity across the globe, EMVCo continues to work withthe payments community to evolve the EMV Chip Specifications topromote a secure and interoperable basis for mobile payments andother emerging payment technologies and meet the long-termneeds of the payments ecosystem.”

Though its growth rate was the highest in the world, the UnitedStates still lags behind much of the world in EMV use. According toEMVCo, 58.9% of card-present contact and contactless transactionsglobally were EMV-enabled between July 2016 and June 2017. In theprior 12-month period, 42.4% of transactions were EMV-enabled, itsaid.

In EMVCo's “Europe Zone 1” area, which covers most of WesternEurope and Turkey, 98.2% of transactions were EMV-enabled,according to the data. The rate is 90.9% in Africa and the MiddleEast, and in Europe Zone 2 (largely Russia and Eastern Europe) therate was 89.1%. The report also said 87% of transactions in Canada,Latin America and the Caribbean were EMV-enabled. In Asia it was56.2%.

“Given the ongoing rate of EMV chip technology adoption, EMVCoacknowledges that real-time figures for transaction volumes todayare likely to be higher than the reported June 2017 figure,” EMVCoadded.

The growth of EMV use in the United States has spawned a seriesof changes in how American shoppers make purchases. One notablechange was Mastercard's announcement in October that it will stoprequiring signatures at the point of sale for credit and debittransactions in Canada and the United States beginning in April2018. In December, Discover announced it too will stop requiringsignatures after April 2018 at the point of sale for debit andcredit purchases in the United States, Canada, Mexico and theCaribbean.