UK clearing bank Barclays Plc has announced plans to give all of its 500,000 customers smartcards by 2002. The new cards will be supplied by card manufacturer De La Rue Card Systems and TTI Card Technology (Europe) Ltd, a recently formed joint venture created by Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp, Toppan Printing Co Ltd and Northampton, UK-based ID Data. Barclay’s existing automated teller machine network will be refreshed by De La Rue’s French associate Ingenico Fortronic.
Barclays hopes that the smartcards will be useful in curbing credit card fraud. The Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS) reported that UK credit card fraud totalled 135m pounds ($217.5m) last year. According to French security specialist Bull Information Systems, French credit card fraud was reduced by 90% between 1987 and 1996 as the use of smartcards doubled.
