New system to enhance e-commerce

Business Asia, Oct 25, 1999

The days of carrying around a wallet crammed with plastic could soon be over if Visa's Rodolphe Chabanel has his way.

Chabanel heads up Visa's Open Platform program, a new smart card system which enables many different functions to be combined onto one credit card.

Instead of storing information on a magnetic strip as is the case with most credit cards currently in use, smart cards contain a small microchip which can store far more information and enables more functions to be added to the card.

But aside from making wallets lighter, the new technology is set to give a boost to electronic commerce over the Internet, according to Chabanel.

"Increasingly, on-line service providers are going to require some form of identification from customers," he said.

Smart cards not only provide a greater level of security for Internet commerce, they will become an essential part of the infrastructure that is required for e-commerce to really take off.

And software and hardware producers are taking note.

"Microsoft is pushing the PC industry to include smart card readers with all PCs," Chabanel said. "So within less than a year all the manufacturers will be shipping smart card readers inside all their PCs."

Visa, Citibank and Hong Kong-based property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties recently launched what was billed as the world's first commercial rollout of a multifunction smart card program using the Open Platform system developed by Visa. Aside from using the card to access Visa and Citibank services, residents of new properties managed by Sun Hung Kai will use it to access their buildings.