New Zealand gets smart Mastercard platform
MasterCard International has launched its OneSMART Mastercard programme in New Zealand, offering financial institutions a range of technology-based solutions for their migration to EMV-compliant smart cards.
All new smart card-capable EFT-POS terminals in New Zealand are required to be EMV (Eurocard/MasterCard/Visa) compliant by January 2006. After that, banks and retailers will be held liable if non-EMV terminals are used to process EMV cards.
Multi-application EMV cards Smart payment cards are equipped with the necessary application software to carry loyalty programmes, cardholder data storage, healthcare details, transportation applications and enhanced security, thus providing cardholders more personalised and customised cards to suit their unique lifestyles.
According to MasterCard, the OneSMART programme offers all the technological solutions and support needed for financial institutions to migrate to EMV chip cards and terminal solutions.
Technology partners MasterCard is providing a list of New Zealand-based partners and technical experts that can provide products and services to help financial institutions optimise and tailor their smart card programmes to meet the needs of their cardholders. OneSMART's partners offer support in five main categories: personalisation systems, smart cards, terminals, host systems, and applications.
"MasterCard believes that the smart card platform is an ideal tool for achieving real competitive differentiation in today's marketplace," explained Bob Whiddon, senior vice president of business development, and country manager for New Zealand at MasterCard International.
Global support The OneSMART MasterCard is a global support programme, into which all of MasterCard's global smart card solutions, technical expertise, and marketing support have now been consolidated.
MasterCard currently accounts for approximately 17 million multi-application capable smart cards in the Asia/Pacific region, and there are more than 180 million MasterCard, Maestro, and Cirrus branded smart cards worldwide - more than half of which already carry value-added applications such as loyalty programmes, digital identification, e-ticketing, e-coupons, and personal data storage.
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