07 February 2012
DUBAI/MUSCAT: Central Bank of Oman (CBO), the Sultanate's banking regulator, has initiated steps to migrate to chip-enabled payment infrastructure called EMV smart cards, from less secure magnetic-stripe payment cards prevalent in the country.
The apex bank has recently floated a tender to select an experienced consultant to support the implementation of a nationwide EMV migration programme. The consultant is expected to develop a high-level migration strategy, provide comprehensive technical specifications taking GCC-net requirements into account and conduct user acceptance testing.
Further, the CBO, in association with Visa, the world's leading electronic payments network, has done preliminary work to persuade banks to migrate to chip-enabled payment cards.
EMV, a technical specification developed by the joint effort of Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is the global standard for micro-processing chips that are embedded in credit and debit cards to provide additional security. These cards are also secured by personal identification number (PIN), which has to be entered into a point-of-sale machine before the card can be used.
The cards with embedded EMV chips, which provide heightened security against fraudulent use of credit and debit cards, will pave the way for adoption of mobile payments technology in future that lets consumers pay by waving their mobile phones at a payment terminal, Sachin Bountra, business development director of Middle East Visa, said at the recent media round table, organised for select journalists by Visa to coincide with the annual Dubai Shopping Festival.
Visa workshop
To accelerate the awareness drive, two rounds of talks -- first a dialogue between the regulator and the banks to throw light on the new technology and a workshop organised by Visa for the banks to explain the security aspect of the chip-compliant technology -- have yielded positive response, a Visa official said. In April 2004, the CBO had conducted a survey to know the preparedness of banks in Oman in switching over to EMV technology.
"Last month, we organised a workshop for the banks in Oman, basically to educate the banks about technological innovations, advances in risk management, the nature of security threats and how the adoption of this technology can make cardholders more secure," Yasser Kunhi, country risk manager of Visa (Middle East and Pakistan), who conducted the workshop, told Times of Oman.
"In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain has switched over to chip technology and other GCC states are in the advanced stage of implementing it for debit and credit cards," Yasser added.
It is estimated that the prepaid card sector in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa will be worth more than $250 billion in 2012, experts have said at the Middle East Prepaid Summit in Dubai.
Fraud prevention
Pointing out that security of cards is a journey of continuous improvement involving people, processes and technology, Yasser said that the electronic payments giant, which has its Middle Visa headquarters in Dubai, works in close cooperation with Royal Oman Police (ROP) in Oman, Dubai police in the UAE, central banks and the issuing banks in combating frauds.
Further, reinforcing its commitment to security standards, the Visa country risk manager stressed that the company is promoting dynamic authentication, of which EMV technology is a part of it. "In dynamic authentication, there is one-time password for every transaction and in EVM, it is secured by PIN."
Stating that due to deployment of cutting-edge technology, fraud rates have declined, he added, "We are encouraging banks to invest in EMV chip technology, a type of dynamic authentication and ensure that Visa transactions are safe for the cardholders."
The dynamic variable ensures that cardholder data cannot be 'replayed' for use in subsequent, fraudulent, transactions. The EMV chip, he says, generates a cryptographic message for the transaction, thereby making that transaction dynamic.
DUBAI/MUSCAT: Central Bank of Oman (CBO), the Sultanate's banking regulator, has initiated steps to migrate to chip-enabled payment infrastructure called EMV smart cards, from less secure magnetic-stripe payment cards prevalent in the country.
The apex bank has recently floated a tender to select an experienced consultant to support the implementation of a nationwide EMV migration programme. The consultant is expected to develop a high-level migration strategy, provide comprehensive technical specifications taking GCC-net requirements into account and conduct user acceptance testing.
Further, the CBO, in association with Visa, the world's leading electronic payments network, has done preliminary work to persuade banks to migrate to chip-enabled payment cards.
EMV, a technical specification developed by the joint effort of Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is the global standard for micro-processing chips that are embedded in credit and debit cards to provide additional security. These cards are also secured by personal identification number (PIN), which has to be entered into a point-of-sale machine before the card can be used.
The cards with embedded EMV chips, which provide heightened security against fraudulent use of credit and debit cards, will pave the way for adoption of mobile payments technology in future that lets consumers pay by waving their mobile phones at a payment terminal, Sachin Bountra, business development director of Middle East Visa, said at the recent media round table, organised for select journalists by Visa to coincide with the annual Dubai Shopping Festival.
Visa workshop
To accelerate the awareness drive, two rounds of talks -- first a dialogue between the regulator and the banks to throw light on the new technology and a workshop organised by Visa for the banks to explain the security aspect of the chip-compliant technology -- have yielded positive response, a Visa official said. In April 2004, the CBO had conducted a survey to know the preparedness of banks in Oman in switching over to EMV technology.
"Last month, we organised a workshop for the banks in Oman, basically to educate the banks about technological innovations, advances in risk management, the nature of security threats and how the adoption of this technology can make cardholders more secure," Yasser Kunhi, country risk manager of Visa (Middle East and Pakistan), who conducted the workshop, told Times of Oman.
"In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain has switched over to chip technology and other GCC states are in the advanced stage of implementing it for debit and credit cards," Yasser added.
It is estimated that the prepaid card sector in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa will be worth more than $250 billion in 2012, experts have said at the Middle East Prepaid Summit in Dubai.
Fraud prevention
Pointing out that security of cards is a journey of continuous improvement involving people, processes and technology, Yasser said that the electronic payments giant, which has its Middle Visa headquarters in Dubai, works in close cooperation with Royal Oman Police (ROP) in Oman, Dubai police in the UAE, central banks and the issuing banks in combating frauds.
Further, reinforcing its commitment to security standards, the Visa country risk manager stressed that the company is promoting dynamic authentication, of which EMV technology is a part of it. "In dynamic authentication, there is one-time password for every transaction and in EVM, it is secured by PIN."
Stating that due to deployment of cutting-edge technology, fraud rates have declined, he added, "We are encouraging banks to invest in EMV chip technology, a type of dynamic authentication and ensure that Visa transactions are safe for the cardholders."
The dynamic variable ensures that cardholder data cannot be 'replayed' for use in subsequent, fraudulent, transactions. The EMV chip, he says, generates a cryptographic message for the transaction, thereby making that transaction dynamic.
© Times of Oman 2012
