Japanese credit card company JCB is reporting it has issued over three million branded EMV IC cards in Japan since December 2001.
JCB began issuing smart cards featuring its EMV credit payment application J/Smart to cardmembers commercially in December 2001 after undergoing several pilot projects. These include the Postal Savings project in Omiya City, near Tokyo, and the Electronic Toll Collection systems for highways in Japan.
By the end of March 2003, JCB expects to have issued more than ten million smart cards, representing 20 per cent of all JCB members. JCB plans for EMV-based JCB IC migration to be complete by the end of 2006.
As well as incorporating the regular advantages of smart cards such as improved security, JCB's J/Smart IC cards will also feature multiple applications to improve user functionality for even better customer satisfaction, including contactless applications for transport and ticketing systems, loyalty applications and electronic money.
The card issuer is also pushing forward with plans to extend its EMV-compliant JCB brand network outside of Japan. In March, 2002, the first JCB IC transaction at a point-of-sale located in the UK was processed.
JCB plans to expand EMV acceptance to other countries by the end of this year, and also expects to have J/Smart- based JCB cards issued outside of Japan very soon.