Asia to lead global smart card adoption

Visa International is to target the Asian market as the first region to replace its traditional magnetic strip-based credit cards with computer chip-enabled smart cards.

Bruce Mansfield, Visa's regional head of chip implementation for Asia-Pacific, said the main driver for the migration towards integrated circuit (IC)-enabled credit and debit cards was to reduce fraud.

Visa hopes to complete the migration in Asia by 2008, ahead of the 2010 date proposed for the rest of the world. The Asian market has been identified as a priority as a consequence of the higher rate of card fraud committed in the region.

Mansfield added that 80 percent of all Visa transactions in the region were expected to be done through IC-based cards by 2006, and 100 percent by 2008.

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