Cardholders in Oman soon may be receiving EMV chip-and-PIN debit and credit cards to replace their magnetic stripe cards under a proposal from the country’s central bank.
The Central Bank of Oman wants to implement a nationwide migration to a chip-enabled payment infrastructure, according to a request for proposal it published earlier this month.
The bank says the winning bidder would be required to develop a migration strategy that takes into consideration the system’s technical requirements and interoperability across the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes five other Middle Eastern nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The central bank will set the timing for when merchants and issuers transition to the new infrastructure after the bid is awarded.
The central bank already is moving ahead with getting the country’s banks on board with the EMV migration, a spokesperson for the bank tells PaymentsSource, adding that Visa Inc. has been collaborating in the effort.
“Other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council are in advanced stages of implementing EMV technology across debit and credit cards,” he says. “It is now necessary for us to go all ahead with this migration.”
As part of the effort, Visa and the central bank have held a series of talks to introduce the technology to affected bank officials, who also have participated in workshops where they have tested EMV chip-and-PIN technology, he says.
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