Banque Populaire in France is to equip 400,000 customers with Xiring's Xi-Sign card authentication reader for securing online banking and e-commerce.
The bank claims to be the first in France to embark on a large-scale roll-out of the system, which is currently deployed by more than 4 million UK users under the home Chip and PIN programme.
Customers will be equipped with a chip card reader - branded by Banque Populaire as a Vericode - which authenticates the card and generates an 8 digit one-time password on the LCD reader. The user then types in the displayed code on the bank Web form to confirm the transaction.
The French bank says it will also use the card readers to verify cards for remote transactions, including Internet shopping.