Visa Warns Issuers On ‘Holomag‘

SAN FRANCISCO - (03/16/06) -- Visa USA is recommending its membersimmediately stop issuing cards with the holographic magnetic stripeimage due to problems when the card is swiped at the point of sale.The card can create a static discharge that causes a paymentterminal to reboot. The static problem has been reported in areasof low humidity, such as the Southwest, Iowa and Minnesota. Visabegan promoting the holographic mag-stripe in January as part ofits redesign of its logo. A dove image appears as a hologram acrossthe mag-stripe on the back of the card. As many as 20 million ofVisa's 500 million cards in the U.S. could be impacted. Visa isconsidering compensating issuers that reissue the cards with theholographic mag-stripe. Visa began hearing of the problem severalmonths ago in Europe.