HDFC Bank Ltd. has become the first bank in India to issue chip-based credit cards that comply with the international EMV antifraud standard, an official from the Mumbai-based bank’s credit card operations tells PaymentsSource.
The bank will reissue its Visa credit and prepaid cards first, says the official, who requested anonymity.
“These will be the first cards to change from the existing magnetic strip format to meet the global EMV standard,” he says. “In some time, we will also begin issuing debit cards [that comply with] the same standard.”
The bank expects to issue some 500,000 EMV cards by the end of the fiscal year, which ends March 31, according to the official.
“We already have the POS infrastructure to meet this demand,” he says. “In the next phases, we expect to move our entire base of around 5 million cardholders to the EMV standard.”
The official was unable to name the vendor supplying the smart cards and could not say whether the issuer’s MasterCard credit cards also will convert to chip.
