Visa International, French banks Banque Nationale de Paris and Societe Generale, France Telecom and Smart Card manufacturer Gemplus International SA yeserterday announced a new consortium designed to integrate French experience with chip cards into existing electronic payment standards. The French market is the only market in the world where electronic payments via chip cards, with 5m such cards issued, and electronic commerce, via the Minitel, are so widely disseminated, said Baudouin Prot, associate managing director for BNP. France Telecom Multimedia director Gerard Eymery noted that the operator pays out approximately $700m annually to merchants that sell services and wares via the Minitel. Since France Telecom introduced the credi t card payment-enabled Minitel terminal Magis to the market about a year ago, it has sold 250,000 units, Eymery said. Indeed, echoed Hans Van Der Velde, president of Visa’s European Community region, The French project is essential for advancing a worldwide solution. Consortium members stressed that a global system is, in fact, their aim, by integrating French chip-card payment procedures into the Visa and Mastercard SET Secure Electronic Transactions and EMV Europay MasterCard Visa standards. The first was developed strictly for markets, in particular the US, that use magnetic-stripe cards. We don’t intend to work toward a strictly Franco-francais solution, said Prot, but one that will function as well in France as abroad. Prot an d his colleagues said they are convinced that the card is better than software-only electronic virtual wallets because it is more portable, not being tied to a personal computer’s hard disk, and is less susceptible to fraud. All of the [Internet electronic payment] systems that have been proposed to date are software-only, and they can be defrauded, Mark Lassus, president and chief executive for Gemenos-based Gemplus International told Computergram. Lassus said Gemplus has several [electr onic payment] projects under way, including a hardware (PCMCIA card, modem and keypad) and software system it has developed with Informix Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co. The device, which should sell for about $50 when it arrives on the market in the autumn, was scheduled to be unveiled at Informix’s user conference in Chicago yesterday. Visa’s Van Der Gelde said magnetic stripe and signature credit cards are likely to be replaced ultimately with chip-based cards, which makes the French project even more important. You have to look at the future perspective for chip cards, with the enormous amount of information you can put on them, he said. The consortium has fixed two test phases for the project. The first, for 18 months, comprises the integration of chip card techniques and SET, while the second will integrate the EMV standard. Prot said the consortium would remain open to additional members.
