Dynamic Card Solutions, an Englewood, Colo.-based business that provides software, which enables financial institutions to instantly issue payment cards, said U.S. banks are showing more interest in EMV or chip and PIN.
"More U.S. banks are trying to educate themselves about the cost and benefits of EMV [Europay MasterCard Visa]," Kristin Eckman, a spokesman for Dynamic Card Solutions, tells ATMmarketplace.com. "It is an issue that keeps coming up. Not everyone here would need an EMV card, but banks could target the cards to international travelers and people who live on the border with Canada or Mexico." EMV is the international standard for the interoperation of chip and PIN.
Dynamic Card Solutions' international division, which is also in Englewood, has for years provided software for banks to issue chip and PIN cards for overseas banks.
However, the growth of EMV elsewhere is affecting bank executives' thinking here. European countries employ EMV in card transactions, and Canadian, Mexican and Asian banks are in the process of either piloting or rolling out chip and PIN, which reduces fraud, such as skimming.
The overwhelming majority of U.S. financial institutions issue magnetic-striped cards. The lone exception is the United Nations Federal Credit Union in New York, which issues EMV cards to members, many of whom travel internationally.
Some American tourists who attempt to pay with their magnetic-stripe cards in foreign locales have had their cards rejected, said Ian Kerr, CEO of Level Four Software Ltd., a Dunfermiline, Scotland, technology company that provides open standards-based ATM software to banks, payment processors and other financial institutions.
Dynamic Card Solutions earlier this week announced the rollout of CardWizard 5.2, a software product that enables financial institution branches to instantly issue magnetic-stripe, contact, contactless and EMV cards.
