Falling Prices of Smart Card Technology Accelerates End-User Adoption.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c69652) has announced the addition of the new Frost & Sullivan Report "World Banking (Financial & Loyalty) Smart Card Markets" to their offering.

Smart Cards Key to Solving Security Concerns

Increasing cases of fraudulence have highlighted the inadequacies of magnetic stripe cards with regard to transaction security. Smart cards are a more secure alternative and are being employed principally in financial applications such as payment cards and automatic teller machine (ATM) or banking cards. A global move by Visa and MasterCard to employ the Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) specification has accelerated smart card adoption. For instance, companies in the United Kingdom have already made rapid progression by moving towards smart cards.

Frost & Sullivan's recent study examines the global banking (financial and loyalty) smart card markets. It offers a competitive analysis on the market shares of key participants. The research provides comprehensive market overview with a global analysis. Market drivers and restraints are also included for end-user benefit.

Mandatory EMV Migration to Avoid Liability Shift Proves to Be a Major Driver

Adopted in 1996, the EMV migration is a result of EMV acceptance as a global standard. With the approaching migration deadline in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and the Asia Pacific (APAC) regions as well as the growing need to avoid the liability shift, numerous financial institutions are chip-enabling their cards and terminals. They are also running systems migration exercises as enhanced security measures.

As EMV migration is in progress for banks and merchants, private label card operators too are expected to migrate to smart cards for avoiding the risk of fraud passing on to them, says the analyst of this research. The EMV migration push impacts the retail loyalty market in a big way, since retailers are pressured to upgrade their point of sale (POS) terminals to accept credit and debit smart cards, failing which, the liability of card fraud is likely to shift to them.

Falling Prices of Smart Card Technology Accelerates End-User Adoption

To reduce the expenses involved in migrating to smart card technology and associated devices, several steps have been taken by participants. Many partnerships such as those between payment organizations and card and reader/terminal vendors in specific migration programs have led to the introduction of cheaper multi-application and mono-application smart cards and related devices, says the analyst.

In addition, to speed up the adoption of smart card technology, the costs of migrating to smart cards and similar technology such as readers and terminals has been lowered considerably. Enhanced consumer benefits and value-added services in the banking sector also make smart cards an attractive option for end users.

For more information, visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c69652