MasterCard says it is currently working on more than 400 individual chip implementations worldwide - double the number of projects active in the same period last year.
Card activity has been particularly strong in the Asia/Pacific region, says MasterCard, where the number of EMV smart cards has continued to double each year - to 14.5 million cards today. The same basic trend holds true in Latin America/Caribbean, South Asia and Middle East Africa and especially Europe, which continues to lead the world with more than 200 chip migration programmes now underway.
In Europe, Crédit Mutuel Centre-Est Europe, will be the first bank in the world to issue M/Chip 4 on Multos in a country-wide roll out beginning in early 2004. The new spec is the first EMV payment application to receive EAL4+ common criteria certification.
This widespread technology shift has helped to guide recent decisions by MasterCard's regional boards to enact liability shift policies calling for the full-scale adoption of smart cards and chip terminals in the 2005 and 2006 time period
To assist the migration procedure, MasterCard is launching an M/Chip Deployment Programme to help member banks make the move from mag-stripe to chip. The card organisation is also looking to tempt banks with a range of advanced applications designed to reduce debt, cutback on fraud and improve the card user experience, including pre-authorised debit card accounts, chip authentication, and contactless payments.