Giesecke & Devrient Supplies MasterCard Chip Cards for a German EMV Pilot

These new cards come from Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), additional features of the cards is a high-security, multifunctional SECCOS Secure Chip Card Operating System. Originally developed by Germanys ZKA Central Banking Committee as platform for debit cards, this system is now being used for the first time on a credit card and enables a number of additional applications over and beyond that of the EMV. SECCOS was developed by the ZKA on the basis of the EMV specifications determined by MasterCard and Visa and applicable worldwide to chip cards and card reader units, the objective being to provide efficient and secure support for various different applications on the card. These include debit and credit card applications as well as the electronic purse or GeldKarte functionality. A good year ago saw G&D becoming the first provider to receive ZKA certification for this new, multifunctional chip card operating system. Besides the EMV application ? within the framework of which customer data is stored in the chip in securely encrypted form ? the credit cards just issued by MasterCard offer two further functions. One of these is what is known as the marketplace functionality, enabling storage on the chip of, for example, digital bonus points awarded in customer loyalty schemes or electronic coupons. The second of these two additional functions is TAN Generator. This offers a cost-efficient method of authentication in online banking via PIN by rendering unnecessary the TAN lists that are normally required. Instead, the TAN number is generated digitally via the chip and a pocket reader unit, and for banks this means an end to the high administrative costs involved in preparing and sending out TAN lists.