Banks in Africa, the United Kingdom and Europe must have converted their magnetic stripe cards to ”smart cards” by January 2005 to combat fraud, Absa executive member Leon du Plessis said on Wednesday.
The conversion of debit, credit and ATM cards to the Europe, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) system was to prevent fraud internationally, which amount to about $2.5-billion per annum.
”Technology is great, but it’s got to evolve to prevent that,” Du Plessis said. ”Asia and Pacific have until 2006.”
Absa has more than 6-million debit cards in South Africa, and 15 000 of the debit cards which could be used for payments at points of sales have already converted to the new system, he said.
The EMV system is an international standard which financial institutions must comply with to combat fraud, and stop losing billions of rands in the process. The system sought to replace the magnetic stripe cards with a microchipped card which would make it difficult for criminals to access your information, and steal bankers’ money.
Du Plessis made the comments when Absa presented its electronic business insight report in Johannesburg on Wednesday. He was accompanied by other senior officials from the bank.
Another executive member, Dave Donkin, said Absa had 155 000 internet users in February 2002, and 48% of them were not Absa customers.
On June 1, 2002, Absa charged its members R39 for the internet service and R65 for people who are not Absa customers.
With 389 000 internet banking customers, 317 000 telephone banking customers and 13 000 cellphone banking customers, Absa was a leading the race for customers in ”e-space”.
It said Absa’s internet banking was R121-billion each month, telephone banking at R5-billion and cellphone banking at R184-million.
”E-commerce continues to broaden its appeal,” the statement said. ”More consumers are coming online every day.” – Sapa