While the potential of Smart Cards may be apparent for many sectors of the economy, the lack of standards in the industry is inhibiting the growthand use of Smart Card technology according to Philip Yen a senior vice-president of Emerging Technology at Visa International.
Visa international, datacard Worldwide and Racal Security and Payments have developed a process to enable Visa smart cards to be loaded with applications and personalised with cardholder information. The companies believe the process is simpler and will save card issuers time and money.
The process, based on Open Platform Specifications, allows financial institutions to add multiple functions such as credit card payment, loyalty and relationship applications and security features for Internet commerce. Philip Yen, senior vice-president of Emerging Technology at Visa International, believes financial institutions can use the technology to differentiate themselves in the marketplace through value-added applications.
Bob Beer, vice-president, Smart Card Technology, Datacard Worldwide, says the technology is "finally bringing the functionality and price of smart cards to a level that will make viable business cases".
Meanwhile, Visa has released version two of its Open Platform Card Specification system and signed license agreements with industry partners such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. Visa hopes the agreements will advance the creation of cross-industry standards for smart cards.
In order to support the new standard, an Open Platform Users Group has been formed for institutions that plan to use Open Platform to build multifunction smart card programs. The group includes Westpac, St George and the Commonwealth bank.
