Wells Fargo (WFC) is offering upgraded security services for its commercial card customers.
Wells Fargo has begun issuing WellsOne commercial cards that comply with Europay, MasterCard and Visa, or EMV, specifications, and include an embedded microprocessor chip along with a traditional magnetic stripe, it said Wednesday. This allows customers to use the cards with merchants that use EMV and PIN-based payments systems as well as merchants using traditional magnetic strip-based systems, the bank said.
Wells has also begun offering free 3-Domain Secure technology for online purchases made with the WellsOne Commercial Card, it said. 3-D Secure is an XML-based protocol designed to be an additional security layer for online credit and debit card transactions. It was developed by Visa with the intention of improving the security of Internet payments and offered to customers as the Verified by Visa service. Services based on the protocol have also been adopted by MasterCard, under the name MasterCard SecureCode. It authenticates the domains of the acquirer, the issuer and the network.
Wells says it is the first U.S. bank to offer this tool to its commercial card customers.
"The risk of fraud grows every day," Mary Mazzochi, Wells' manager of commercial card products, said in the news release. "This technology is targeted at mitigating fraud as it moves from the point of sale to online channels. It's what we do at Wells Fargo: find new ways to protect our customers' businesses."
