News
Visa Europe and Cornèr Bank launch
CodeSure card
Visa Europe and Cornèr Bank announce commercial launch of
the world’s first Visa CodeSure card with contactless payment
functionality
Swiss consumers first to benefit from major step forward in
online security
Zürich, 11th November 2010 – Visa
Europe, Europe’s leading payment system, and Cornèr Bank, one of
Europe’s most innovative banks, today announced the commercial
launch of Visa CodeSure. This is a payment card with an embedded
PIN pad which allows consumers to generate a passcode by simply
typing their PIN number into the card enabling security and
convenience in the same device. The card makes Verified by Visa
online transactions easier and more secure and can also be used in
an ATM or point-of-sale device as usual. In addition this
ground-breaking card comes with contactless functionality allowing
cardholders to buy low value items for under CHF40 by simply waving
and paying. The Visa CodeSure payment card uses an eight digit
alpha-numeric display, a 12-button keypad and battery embedded in
the card, which is designed to last for three years.
Cornèr Bank is the first
issuer in the world to introduce this combined technology and will
issue the new card to consumers over the coming months. Alessandro
Seralvo, Director, Cornèrcard explained: “We want to give our
customers peace of mind when buying online. The Internet has
developed into an
important purchasing channel for Swiss consumers, who buy around 6
billion Swiss Francs worth of products online each year. With this
revolutionary new technology fraud online will be significantly
further reduced, as the cardholder is required to enter their PIN
for each online transaction, preventing any unauthorised use.”
Seralvo continued; “Combined with contactless technology, the card
will revolutionise the way consumers pay, allowing speed of service
and security, as well as worldwide acceptance.”
Sandra Alzetta, Head of
Innovation at Visa Europe commented: “Visa is thrilled to be
launching this pioneering payment card with Cornèr Bank. This
exclusive Visa solution is an extremely convenient way to bring a
similar level of security to payments online as we now enjoy on the
high street with chip and PIN. Visa CodeSure goes beyond online and
remote shopping also allowing organisations to use the card in
place of other online log-in systems to access, for example, online
and telephone banking and corporate virtual private networks.”
Visa has extensively
tested the product’s durability, safety, reliability and security
with some of the leading laboratories and experts in the field
before enabling it for commercial launch. Since its
development in 2009, Visa CodeSure trials with eight European banks
and their cardholders in a number of countries, including
Switzerland, have shown with shopping online, that participants
felt they would use their cards for card-not-present transactions
more often (70% positive) and were reassured about security with
the new card (86% positive). Consumers will now benefit from a
simple and straightforward process when shopping online, with no
need to register or to use any separate device or, more
importantly, to remember any additional passwords.
Visa CodeSure works by
proving that the valid cardholder made the transaction as only
he/she has the card in their possession and only he/she should know
their PIN. The process of validating the online transaction is done
in three simple steps:
1) When shopping online or
logging in to an online banking service, the cardholder activates
the authentication process by pressing the “Verified by Visa”
option button on the card’s keypad.
2) When prompted, the
consumer inputs their PIN into the keypad embedded in the card.
3) A unique
one-time-passcode appears on the card’s display, which is then used
by the cardholder to authenticate a standard Verified by Visa
online transaction.
The contactless
functionality now embedded in the card allows payments at
point-of-sale to be made in less than a second. Using short-range
wireless technology, payment details are securely exchanged between
a chip card and a specially adapted point-of-sale terminal. The
payment card only needs to be waved in front of the terminal with
no need for it to be physically swiped or inserted into a
point-of-sale device for contactless payments.