|
Today the National Australia Bank (NAB) announced the successful completion of Australasia's first end-to-end chip card transaction pilot, paving the way for enhanced levels of electronic payment security.
The EMV protocol (joint venture between card schemes Europay, Visa and Mastercard) sets the technological standards for the processing of the more secure chip card electronic payments.
NAB General Manager Acquiring, Peter Roeleven said: "We are the first acquirer in this market to be fully certified to process EMV chip card transactions.
"We have completed a successful customer pilot, and we will begin processing up to 20,000 chip card transactions on a daily basis. Initially we expect the majority of these transactions will be for visitors who have their smartcards issued by overseas institutions," Mr Roeleven said.
"NAB has taken a leadership position in the acquiring market, investing in EMV compliant merchant terminals to deliver the most secure electronic payment technology in the market.
"We have a range of EFTPOS terminal models that are certified and ready to process chip card transactions - and this will soon be extended with the release of our range of new terminals," Mr Roeleven said.
NAB is in the early developmental stages of a plan to issue its own chip cards.
Bruce Mansfield, Visa's Executive Vice President, Australia and NZ said the migration to EMV Chip based payments is an important evolution of the payment system which is gaining significant momentum.
"We're obviously delighted NAB have taken these positive steps and we will continue to encourage an industry wide focus on mainstream rollout over the coming 18 months," Mr Mansfield said.
Note to editors:
A chip-card is a standard-sized plastic card that "contains an integrated circuit or 'chip' which gives the card the ability to store and/or process data" (Walters 1992, p.18).
Ends
For further media information, please contact:
John Fergusson
Corporate Affairs - Business & Private
National Australia Bank
Mobile: 0407 826 952
|
