John Tunstall, a 25-year international banking veteran, last week became the latest expert to join MasterCard International's smart card team.
Mr. Tunstall, 54, who joins the card association as a vice president, is charged with developing specifications and software for card-accepting terminals.
This announcement comes less than a month after the three card associations - MasterCard, Europay International, and Visa International -completed their yearlong effort to establish guidelines for the manufacture of smart cards and terminals.
Immediately following that announcement, Visa declared its intention to work with 20 vendors to develop and test prototype chip card technology.
MasterCard officials say they disagree with Visa's strategy, and that MasterCard will work openly with any and all vendors.
"My top priority is to develop a generic terminal that can be used by all," said Mr. Tunstall. "The success of the smart card depends on making the terminal accessible and readily usable for the merchant, and that means getting everybody on board."
Mr. Tunstall moved from Brussels to the New York area to take this job. "My family will not be joining me until after the school year ends," he said, "which is probably a good thing since right now I'm working 12-hour days."
Mr. Tunstall said he was attracted to the MasterCard opportunity -despite the move across the Atlantic - because of his admiration for Eugene Lockhart's vision.
Mr. Lockhart, president of MasterCard, has attracted a treasure trove of talent to his smart card team in the past six months.
Mr. Tunstall reports to Robin Townend, senior vice president of chip card technology, whose arrival within the MasterCard fold in early July was widely applauded by smart card advocates. Diane Wetherington, senior vice president of chip card marketing, rounds out the team.
"The reason I came, stated quite simply, is because of Gene Lockhart and his vision of the future: his ideas about the points of interaction, his commitment to the chip card," said Mr. Tunstall.
"I've known Gene for a long time, since his years with Midland Bank," he added. "I saw him in action, and I was impressed."
Mr. Tunstall was general secretary of the International Association for Microcircuit Cards, where he led a working group concentrating on the creation of chip card standards. He also served as the general secretary of the European Committee for Banking Standards.
He serves as chairman of the International Standards Organization Working Group, charged with developing standards for financial sector security architecture for the use of chip cards. Mr. Tunstall will continue his role with the organization while at MasterCard.
"John brings a unique combination of global banking standards experience with specialist knowledge in all facets of chip card technology," said Mr. Townend.
"He is known internationally for his leadership in smart card and standards development as well as for his work with the various multi-industry standards organizations throughout the world."
Although MasterCard has more than a decade's worth of experience with the chip card, it has made a big push within the past year, goaded by member banks' increasing interest in the cards.
"There are two major advantages chip cards have over magnetic stripe cards," said Mr. Tunstall. "First, I think the chip overcomes some of the fraud problems we have experienced."
This benefit, he said, stems from the card's inherent ability to contain much more information than can be encoded on a stripe: information like transaction limits or dollar limits.
"Second, are the value add-ons," said Mr. Tunstall.
Within this second category come frequent-shopper programs and other fee-generating features.
"The successful features will be those that consumers are looking for and member banks get some benefit from," said Mr. Tunstall. "The capacity of the chip is almost unlimited."
