MasterCard Records Sharp Increase in Smart Card Programs Worldwide
02 December, 2003
category: Contactless, Financial
Financial Institutions Working With MasterCard to Manage More than 400 Chip Implementations – Double Last Year’s
Purchase, N.Y., November 18, 2003 – Registering a sharp rise in global
demand for smart card services, MasterCard International today announced
that it is now working with its customers on more than 400 individual
chip implementations around the world. This figure represents more than
double the number of projects active in the fourth quarter of 2002.
Smart card adoption continues to gather force in most regions of the
world. Smart card activity has been particularly strong in the
Asia/Pacific region, where the number of EMV smart cards has continued
to double each year – to 14.5 million cards today. The same basic trend
holds true in Latin America/Caribbean, South Asia and Middle East Africa
and especially Europe, which continues to lead the world with more than
200 chip migration programs now underway.
This widespread technology shift has helped to guide recent decisions by
MasterCard’s regional boards in Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin
America/Caribbean, and South Asia and Middle East Africa, who have all
recently enacted intra-regional liability shift policies calling for the
full-scale adoption of smart cards and chip terminals in the 2005 and
2006 time period. Migration incentives are already in place in most of
these regions as well.
“MasterCard and its customers are launching some of the most exciting
and innovative smart card programs in the payments industry,” said Dr.
Toni Merschen, senior vice president and head of MasterCard’s Chip
Center of Excellence. “By staying close to our customers, and providing
the right technology solutions at the right time in the right markets,
MasterCard is making the move to chip as smooth as possible.”
One of MasterCard’s key European customers, Crédit Mutuel Centre-Est
Europe, will be the first bank in the world to issue M/Chip 4 on MULTOS
in a massive, country-wide roll out beginning in early 2004. M/Chip 4
on MULTOS is the first EMV payment application to receive EAL4+
certification, the highest Common Criteria certification accepted
worldwide.
“Crédit Mutuel Centre-Est Europe is pleased to be upgrading at least
half of its entire card portfolio with chips carrying M/Chip 4,” said
Claude Brun, executive director at Crédit Mutuel. “We have selected
MasterCard’s M/Chip 4 application based on our need to get to market
quickly, our need for flexibility and our desire to offer our
cardholders the highest security available.”
To help ensure a steady stream of MasterCard chip products in the
marketplace, MasterCard is working to equip the vendor community with
the tools they need to support MasterCard smart card programs around the
world. Card vendors including Austria Card, Gemplus, Giesecke & Devrient
and Setec have committed to supporting M/Chip 4. MasterCard has also
recently signed an agreement with Ingenico, making Ingenico a key
supporter of MasterCard’s M/Chip deployment program.
Global Support Programs
Last year, MasterCard announced OneSMART MasterCard, a comprehensive,
global support program covering every aspect necessary to successfully
launch smart cards. With OneSMART MasterCard, all of MasterCard’s
global
smart card solutions, technical expertise, and marketing support were
consolidated under a single banner.
Expanding on this, MasterCard is today unveiling a subset of OneSMART
MasterCard, called the “M/Chip Deployment Program,” which provides a
complete solution for MasterCard’s customers who are migrating their
payment cards from the magnetic stripe platform to chip. The M/Chip
Deployment Program focuses specifically on addressing all aspects of
chip migration and consists of three components:
The M/Chip application and its enabling infrastructure
M/Chip Implementation Support Services provided by MasterCard
Industry products and services based on the M/Chip specification
OneSMART Choice for Migration
To further enhance their smart card business case, MasterCard’s
customers can leverage MasterCard M/Chip 4 as the technical basis to
deliver a range of additional applications, including:
M/Chip Pre-Authorized – Allows the cardholder to place an amount of cash
in a “pre-authorized” account, which is regulated by the chip’s
“open-to-buy” counter. The cardholder continues to use the card in an
off-line mode until the amount requested exceeds the card’s
“open-to-buy” counter, at which point funds must be replenished. This
new application extends the Maestro value proposition by enabling debit
cards to be issued to new customer segments and accepted by new merchant
categories.
Chip Authentication Program – M/Chip 4 cards can be used in conjunction
with MasterCard® SecureCodeTM to generate the authentication data
necessary to guarantee e-commerce transactions. This program, called the
Chip Authentication Program, is a smart card based authentication
solution that MasterCard is making available to its issuers as part of
its global MasterCard SecureCode solution. It can also be used for
Internet banking and other applications requiring positive cardholder
authorization. Three significant Chip Authentication Program
implementations were announced this week by Barclaycard in the United
Kingdom, Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken in
Germany and Redecard in Brazil.
MasterCard PayPassTM – M/Chip 4 also supports emerging solutions such as
PayPass, MasterCard’s contactless payment program. As M/Chip is a highly
flexible solution that can be customized to meet the issuers needs, it
can be offered with the PayPass contactless capability either on a
single, integrated chip, or as a “hybrid,” two-chip (contact and
contactless) card. Either way, PayPass enables cardholders to pay with
one simple touch of the card.
“By building on M/Chip 4, we are greatly boosting the value proposition
for chip migration,” said Merschen. “When our customers adopt M/Chip,
they receive immediate access to a range of applications and related
support services that can strengthen their business case for moving to
chip.”
The OneSMART MasterCard program was recently expanded with a range of
pre-configured smart card packages that will help our customers get to
market faster. These three distinct packages all include MasterCard
M/Chip and range in functionality from a basic, single application
payment card to a more robust, Web-savvy card optimized for Internet
usage:
OneSMART MasterCard Payment – provides an enhanced payment application
OneSMART MasterCard Authentication – ensures a higher level of security
for online shopping and remote banking OneSMART MasterCard Web – allows
cardholders to securely store and manage a wide range of personal data
(such as names, addresses, URLs, log-on
passwords) on the smart card chip
About MasterCard International
MasterCard International is a leading global payments solutions company
that provides a broad variety of innovative services in support of our
global members’ credit, deposit access, electronic cash,
business-to-business and related payment programs. MasterCard
International manages a family of well-known, widely accepted payment
cards brands including MasterCard®, Maestro® and Cirrus® and serves
financial institutions, consumers and businesses in over 210 countries
and territories. The MasterCard award-winning Priceless® advertising
campaign is now seen in 98 countries and in 46 languages, giving the
MasterCard brand a truly global reach and scope. For more information go
to www.mastercardinternational.com.
