Johannesburg-based Standard Bank has begun the roll out of the first EMV smart cards issued in South Africa.
The bank issued the first batch of smart cards to staff at its head office in Johannesburg as part of a three-month pilot project.
Standard Bank used smart card processing technology from ACI for the pilot, along with Namitech's card manufacture and chip software and Thales' personalisation security system. Mosaic Software's front-end processor and CSC's POS terminal are also being used.
After the completion of the pilot project, Standard Bank cardholders will receive EMV credit cards when their existing magnetic stripe cards expire.
Alewyn Burger, director operations, payments and direct distribution, Standard Bank, says the longer-term objective is to add extra banking products to the chip, such as debit, loyalty programmes and personal information.