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A new service from Visa helps issuing banks get a security boost from chip-cards without the costly and time-consuming technology investments that would normally be required.
February 6 -
MasterCard does not explicitly require the use of a PIN with chip cards in the U.S., but its sliding scale of liability leaves little other choice.
February 2 -
A growing number of U.S. consumers have encountered problems using their magnetic-stripe cards in countries that have already switched to EMV, and U.S. financial companies are starting to take note.
May 13
Even two years ago, when the first U.S. financial institution committed to issuing secure chip cards, vendors said no one was lined up to follow. But times have quickly changed.
Gemalto NV now sees such potential in issuing chip cards that use the EMV standard that it announced Thursday an instant issuance service in the U.S. The standard is more common in other countries, where it is called chip-and-PIN.
Gemalto's news comes on the heels of Visa Inc.'s Monday announcement of a service that helps issuers
"Both issuing banks and retailers have to transition to EMV for the shift to be successful," says Wedbush analyst Gil B. Luria.
Gemalto's Dexxis EMV instant issuance product encodes chip cards and writes information to the cards' magnetic stripes.
Instant issuance is an important piece to EMV adoption, payments consultant Philip Philliou says in an email.
"I am in Brazil this week working for a very large retailer," he says. "Like the US, Brazil is migrating to EMV. It's evolutionary and takes time. As a tool to reduce fraud it is imperative."
However, many players have been promoting instant issuance, and the technology has yet to catch on even with magnetic-stripe cards, says Celent senior analyst Zilvinas Bareisis
"Of course, there are benefits of increased customer satisfaction, and even reduced fraud, but the biggest advantage I see here is the opportunity to educate the customer," Bareisis says.
Indeed, for at least three years, Gemalto has been aggressively promoting EMV cards among U.S. issuers.
"Anything that involves chips and chip security is going to be a hot business over the next few years," says Brian Riley, a research director in the bank cards practice at TowerGroup. "Gemalto has really been pushing this U.S. adoption for a few years, I think their pay day is about here."
In 2010,
