DaimlerChrysler Bank has become the first German bank to issue an EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) chip payment card.
The card, which exclusively carries the Visa mark, will enable the bank and its cardholders to protect against credit card fraud. By 2005, Visa expects most of its member banks in Europe, and many more outside Europe, to equip all Visa payment cards according to EMV standards.
Cardholders will be able to use the new chip card at more than 24 million locations worldwide.
Bill Dunn, senior vice president of chip business support for Visa EU, says: "Visa is fully committed to chip card migration investing EUR168 million as part of a European-wide incentive programme to support banks during the transition...We hope DaimlerChrysler's decision to implement the EMV chip card will encourage others to follow."