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Visa CodeSure reinforces position as most technically advanced commercial payment display card at CARTES & IDentification 2010 with addition of contactless

CARTES and IDentification, Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center

7th – 9th December 2010

Find Visa at stand: Hall 4, number 4J022

London and Paris – 7 December 2010 – Visa Europe, Europe’s leading payment system and its technology partner, Emue Technologies have announced the commercial availability of a contactless payments-enabled version of its Visa CodeSure integrated card and authentication solution. In addition Visa Europe highlights key product features that provide members a complete authentication and payment solution.

The addition of contactless payment technology to the card, which also uses an embedded PIN pad to generate a one-time-use authentication passcode for card-not-present transactions, brings both security and convenience to consumers. Enabled for use in thousands of European retail outlets that accept contactless payments, customers will simply touch their card on a wireless reader to pay for low value everyday items at point-of-sale without the need to enter a PIN*.

Visa CodeSure enables banks to move beyond two-factor authentication to a comprehensive multi-channel solution that ensures their customers are protected in card-not-present transactions, including e-commerce, telephone and Internet banking. Usability is also a key feature as the card has a secure 8-digit alphanumeric display which provides intuitive messages to customers during the authentication process, and a twelve button keypad which enables access to up to ten different authentication modes.

The Visa CodeSure card has gained market acceptance very quickly, with the world’s first commercial launch announced by Cornèr Bank (Switzerland) in November 2010. Prior to this, trials were undertaken with a broad range of participants including BarclayCard, Yapi Kredi (Turkey), IW Bank (Italy) CAL Bank (Israel) and DKB (Germany).

Sandra Alzetta, Head of Innovation at Visa Europe said: “Visa CodeSure is proving to be a very exciting technology for the banking industry. With authentication of consumers being one of the key strategic opportunities, adding contactless payments functionality to the Visa CodeSure card brings flexibility and convenience for low value payments to an innovative card-not-present authentication system.”

Brendan McKeegan, CEO at Emue Technologies said: “We have worked with Visa Europe across multiple pilots to understand the factors that will enhance the customer experience with Visa CodeSure. Enabling contactless payments as an additional service for the cards was pinpointed as a pertinent enhancement through this process and adding the functionality as an option for the device offers yet more value to issuing banks and their customers.”

Visa CodeSure utilises Emue’s unique Mutual Authentication technology. This enables a cardholder to feel reassured they are dealing with their genuine bank through a one-time “authenticating challenge” code. Only the correct challenge code will be verified by the cardholder, in turn enabling them to enter their PIN into the card and provide a one-time passcode to the bank. This means both parties are securely identified. The use of this functionality will be effective in the fight against online fraud and phishing, as well as telephone based social engineering which is of concern to the industry.  

The Visa CodeSure card incorporates additional technological advances that include Transaction Signing e.g. being able to securely ‘Sign’ the value of an online banking transfer from one party to another with the Beneficiary account details and/or the value of the transaction and the ability to hold credentials that enable the cardholder to authenticate their identity to more than one service provider, such as a bank and a government service or corporate network. Importantly, the cardholder’s PIN is not stored on the card, which removes the risk of it being obtained by a fraudster stealing a customer's card, while at the same time enhancing flexibility for changing and managing PINs.