Financial institutions get smarter cards

Payment cards are becoming increasingly useful and more secure

Payment cards become smarter and more secure

Financial institutions are moving towards more secure payment cards with greater functionality, according to research by the UK’s Smart Payment Association (SPA).
The smart card manufacturers trade association carried out a global study of the payments card market and found 12 per cent of cards shipped now have a data storage capability.

This storage function enables value-added applications including loyalty, access control and ticketing.

The report also found a 27 per cent increase in the dynamic data authentication capability in cards, which is more than double that of 2006.

SPA president Jerome Ajdenbaum said: ‘The dramatic acceleration of the conversion of static data authentication to more secure dynamic data authentication cards and the growing share of cards enabled with data storage capability are the most concrete signs of this trend.’

The SPA released a joint industry specification last year to address cross vendor inoperability for contactless data storage in a move to standardise data storage.