Smart cards finally arrive in the US (09/14/2000) Having been popular in Europe for years, the smart card has made it finally to the US. Credit card giant Visa USA has launched "smart Visa", a multifunctional chip payment platform. The platform will provide several pre-packaged applications and enhanced security, Visa claimed. Three US banks - First USA, FleetBoston Financial and Providian Financial - have said they will implement Visa's chip technology this fall. Visa also said it is in talks with other financial institutions. The take-up of smart cards in America has been encouraged by dramatic price reductions. The price of the new card is $3. Similar products cost around $12 last year. A customer can connect "smart Visa" to a PC to download new applications to upgrade the card without having to get a new one, Visa said. In addition smart cards will be able to store information. They could, for example, function as electronic keys for home, office or car, the credit card giant claimed. They could also store personal ID information to improve payment security. At the end of August, Visa's arch rival MasterCard formed a group with 10 major digital-ID vendors to develop and globally deploy smart card applications for mobile and e-commerce. MasterCard did not give a timeline for the launch, though. (c) Copyright ComputerWire, 2000 to unsubscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to subscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] more good stuff at http://theMezz.com/alerts ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
