IMGCAP(1)]
Gemalto NV said Friday it would provide smart card services to banks in Venezuela through a deal it signed with Corporacion Cardtech, a Venezuelan card vendor, and Newtech Solutions, a firm also based in that country that provides card-related consulting and technical services. The French firm says it will provide "consulting services, smart cards and technology," according to a statement. The effort will support the issuance of some 8 million chip cards that carry the global EMV antifraud standard by June 2010, Gemalto says. "We will provide everything necessary to effectively personalize, issue and accept EMV on a large scale," a Gemalto spokesperson says in a statement. The smart card maker did not provide immediate comment to CardLine Global. Issuers in Europe and Asia have embraced the EMV standard more quickly than issuers in other parts of the world, though banks in Canada and Latin America–especially Brazil and Mexico–have taken significant steps over the last few years to issue more EMV cards. In most cases, shifting liability for fraud on non-EMV cards away from card networks to merchants and issuers has pushed the migration to EMV along. That is happening in Venezuela, Gemalto says. Issuers in the United States have shown few signs of adopting the standard.
