Threat to Payments from Chip Shortage

A shortage of EMV chips is creating real risks for payments since these chips enable ATM cash withdrawals and all forms of digital payments.

Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) recently published a piece about the shortage of chips from the semiconductor industry. This has been widely picked up in the press. The shortage is driven by growing demand as the world goes digital and the capabilities of electronics are used in ever increasing places. The US-China trade dispute and the COVID-19 pandemic have also played their part in creating what is now a crisis.

Increasing supply is a major issue since it takes a couple of years or more and, according to the papers, billions of dollars to build a plant. Forbes reported that Intel will spend $20 billion on two new factories and Taiwan’s TSMC plans to spend $28 billion.