Visa announced this week that from April 1, 2010, all Visa credit cards issued in New Zealand will feature chip card technology.
The move comes as a part of Visa's global effort to limit card fraud. The secure chip embedded in each card will offer increased protection to consumers and is driven by the global EMV (Europay, Mastercard & Visa) chip card standards.
Chip cards used with PIN authentication have proven effective in reducing counterfeit card fraud in other countries.
All of Skyzer's EFTPOS terminal fleet in New Zealand is capable of processing these highly secure Visa cards.According to Visa's broader plan to enhance payment security by phasing out signature authentication of cardholders, from 1 April 2012, all domestic Visa card transactions will be PIN authenticated.
From 1 April, 2012, all new Visa debit and reloadable prepaid cards will be chip enabled as well.
Currently, only 4% of New Zealand's 2.6 million Visa cards are chip enabled.
For further details:
http://www.visa-asia.com/ap/nz/mediacenter/pressrelease/NR_NZ_240310_security.shtml
