Scandinavian banking conglomerate Nordea has chosen smart card company Setec to deliver its EMV payment cards pilot project in Finland.
Under national specifications outlined by Finnish banks and retailers together with Luottokunta, a Finnish credit institution, by 2003, all new Finnish issued cards should be EMV compliant, and by 2005, all the cards in circulation in Finland are to be EMV cards.
In Nordea's pilot phase, to be ready in the beginning of 2002, Setec will deliver Nordea 16K SetCard Java Lite smart cards. The cards comply with international Open Platform Specifications, which enables the installation of new applications within the card after the card has been issued. The broader implementation of EMV cards will take place in stages in 2002-2003.
Setec already supplies the 2.4 million cards circulated by Nordea in Finland and recently delivered a PKI-based electronic identity card for internal use at the bank's offices in Sweden.