Visa has launched a new smart card product priced as just $1.98 and further reduced the costs of a range of chip-related services under its Smart Breakthrough Card programme.
The price reductions mean that Visa smart card costs have fallen up to 40% since the start of the programme in 2000, says the card scheme. Twenty-two million of the 60 million EMV chip cards so far issued by Visa member banks have come via the Breakthrough programme.
The new card - called the GP-Entry card - conforms to the GlobalPlatform specifications and has 8K of Eeprom memory and a Visa payment application that supports major authentication technologies, such as Static Data Authentication (SDA) and Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA). It is specifically designed for Visa member banks looking to implement a GlobalPlatform card with basic functionality.
There are currently nine card products in the programme supporting DES and PK security with a variety of ROM and Eeprom memory sizes. Prices range from $1.98 for a GlobalPlatform card supporting DDA with 8K of EEPROM to $3.47 for a GlobalPlatform dual interface card also supporting DDA with 16K of Eeprom. The programme also includes a static/native card priced at less than a dollar. All prices are based on white plastic cost and include the Visa Smart Debit/Credit (VSDC) application in ROM.
As well as reduced pricing, the Visa Smart Breakthrough Card programme also provides a 'Custom Mask' process for GlobalPlatform cards. This allows regions, countries or groups of members to develop a product that is customised to a specific market.
The new Visa price-point comes two months after rival MasterCard introduced a $1.99 chip card.