Interac Association, MasterCard Canada Inc., and Visa Canada Association are planning to test smart cards in Canada next year.
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Interac, which operates Canada's largest PIN debit network, said Wednesday that the test of cards using the Europay, MasterCard, Visa standard would begin in the fall in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, market. The Toronto company said it expects transaction volume to reach a level sufficient to study patterns of card use by March 2008.
EMV cards are already widely used in Europe and Asia, but no U.S. companies have announced plans to use them. The cards, designed to offer improved protection from fraud and counterfeiting, include a microchip that carries information not included in the magnetic stripe.
