StepNexus is supplying CAP applications to Kreditkort Iceland for the post-issuance service, which will enable cardholders to upgrade to the CAP programme without having to receive a new card.

By utilising the online application generation service of StepNexus, Icelandic MasterCard cardholders are able to have their card loaded with CAP at a bank branch where they can also pick-up a two-factor card reader and receive instructions on using the card and reader for Web banking.

Ragnar Onundarson, MD, Kreditkort Iceland says: "We expect to see this on-demand offer being taken up by both the technically literate cardholders but also by the cardholder who will appreciate the offer of some education about e-banking."

A phased offering from Kreditkort will see cardholders immediately offered a drop-in service followed up in 2007 with the ability to upgrade cards at ATMs.

StepNexus says its Secure Trusted Environment Provisioning (Step) package allows smart card applications such as CAP to be pre-personalised with cardholder personal data, assembled into a secure package and sent in a single message to a cardholder's card via any network, including the Internet and ATM for local download.

Additionally, Kreditkort Iceland can use a Web-enabled smart card data preparation service to provide encrypted cardholder data files to StepNexus Services over the Internet, which can be downloaded post-issuance.

Commenting on the technology, Toni Merschen, group head, chip, MasterCard Worldwide, says: "The possibility to dynamically add CAP to existing cards in the field opens up the possibility for our members to enhance their chip value proposition in a number of ways not considered until now."