IMGCAP(1)]
U.S. Bancorp is testing a service that allows it to instantly issue debit cards featuring Visa Inc.'s payWave contactless application. "If this proves to be an absolutely viable technology, we will consider using instant issuance of payWave in all of our branches," Lynn Heitman, U.S. Bancorp senior vice president, tells ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. The bank operates 2,847 branches. U.S. Bank launched the pilot Friday after several months of tests, but it has not set a date for when the test will end, Heitman says. The bank is conducting the pilot at a combined seven branches in Salt Lake City and Denver. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank is partnering with Dynamic Card Solutions LLC, an Englewood, Colo.-based company that developed software for instant card issuance. The software makes the cards. U.S. Bank will offer unembossed, but personalized, payWave cards to new customers who open checking accounts. Bank officials can create the card in one minute, after which new customers can use it immediately to access to their accounts, she says. The bank decided to issue contactless debit cards because of the growing number of merchant locations in the Denver and Salt Lake City areas that accept them and because the bank has a large number of branches in the two cities, Heitman says. She, however, did not know specifically how many merchant locations in those cities accept contactless cards. Visa also did not know. The cards also have a magnetic stripe so customers can use them at merchant locations that do not accept contactless cards, Heitman says.
