Responding to what it says is strong demand from corporate customers whose employees travel internationally, Citigroup Inc. on Aug. 11 announced the capability to equip domestic commercial cards with EMV chip-and PIN technology for use in markets outside the U.S. where chip-enabled cards prevail.
The move coincidentally follows Visa’s Aug. 9 announcement of plans to accelerate U.S. EMV adoption with a series of incentives and programs to shift liability in the next several years to noncompliant merchants (
But it will be several years before EMV-enabled cards are widely distributed in the U.S., and in the near future more overseas travelers are likely to experience difficulty initiating transactions abroad with traditional magnetic stripe cards, observers say.
To help bridge the gap, Citi this week unveiled the Citi Corporate Chip and PIN card, which it is testing with employees of a large, multinational company. This fall the bank plans to roll the product out to other commercial card customers, company executives tell PaymentsSource.
Though several other banks previously announced plans to offer EMV cards to U.S. cardholders, Citi says its offering is the first commercial card with EMV technology, enabling users to make transactions wherever EMV transactions are required without losing the benefit of their commercial cards’ specific controls and rich transaction data.
Unlike other U.S. banks’ EMV card offerings, Citi’s version also will support EMV transactions requiring a PIN for authorization. If no PIN is required, cardholders may initiate transactions with a signature, Citi says.
The PIN element adds an additional layer of security and adds utility, ensuring cardholders may use the cards even at certain unattended locations and kiosks that require a PIN and a chip-based card, a Citi spokesperson says.
For commercial card users, the main benefits of Citi’s card center on providing continuity with existing customized card controls, the company says.
“The chip-based cards that certain other banks are starting to offer typically are based on consumer credit cards, not commercial cards, which means you could end up with a disjointed offering,” says Deirdre Ives, Citi director of wholesale cards for North America within the bank’s global transaction services group. “With our program, chips will be added to commercial cards, so all the reporting, servicing and maintenance of an employee card program can remain the same, and corporations need not manage a separate program just for chip card users.”
The EMV cards may share the same account number as existing commercial cards, notes David Ruda, Citi commercial card market manager for North America.
“The important thing is making sure all the programs our customers have set up for their commercial cardholders, which include travel and supplier policy enforcement, for example, stay the same when an employee goes overseas,” Ruda says. “This way, companies can gain EMV capabilities on cards whose controls remain integrated with [their] travel and expenses-reporting systems and their enterprise-wide systems.”
Although demand for the product has been “strong,” Ives notes that EMV-enabled commercial cards likely will remain a niche product within its overall commercial card program.
Various banks in recent months have announced the availability of general chip-based credit cards for international travelers.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. in June rolled out the J.P. Morgan Palladium card for high-end business travelers and the J.P. Morgan Select Visa Signature card for general cardholders (
U.S. Bancorp also in June said it would issue an EMV card for international cardholders (
Wells Fargo & Co. was the first large bank to announce plans to make EMV cards available to domestic customers (
Other issuers offering chip-enabled cards include Silicon Valley Bank and United Nations Federal Credit Union, which in October sent 7,000 EMV cards to its U.S.-based Visa cardholders.
