Credit card security spreads across Turkey
Posted by meb at May 4th, 2007
Roughly 90 percent of credit card users are aware of chip&PIN — a new payment method that minimizes the risk of credit card fraud by preventing counterfeiting and the use of lost or stolen cards, according to Sertaç Özinal, general manager of the Interbank Card Center (BKM).
Özinal was speaking at the opening ceremony of the first Cardist Card Technologies Exhibition and Summit, organized by the NTSR International Exhibition and Congress Organizers and sponsored by BKM, MasterCard and Visa on Thursday.
Özinal discussed the latest point reached in the transformation process of widespread use of the chip&PIN application. June 30 is the last day for signing receipts after using cards, he underlined. After that, all shopping will have to be conducted via chip&PIN-compliant credit cards.
The technology involves a computer chip that is embedded in the card, providing protection from copying. The four-digit PIN prevents others from using the card in the event of loss or theft. Banks have started issuing chip-embedded credit cards and PINs to their customers. Starting on March 31, 2006, customers with credit cards that have embedded chips are required to enter their passwords in order to receive their payments.
“Fifty-eight percent of the population in Turkey is between 20 and 64,” said Özinal, indicating huge growth potential in the market.
“There are 33 million credit cards in the Turkish market. We are the third biggest in Europe in terms of the number of cards and the sixth biggest with respect to the amount spent using these cards. We hope to advance one place and become fifth this year,” Özinal said.
Özinal also said there are 16,511 ATMs in Turkey, expected to reach 26,000 by 2010. “Nowadays, a lot of companies are engaged in talks with us and the banks. We think that many foreign firms will undertake ATM operations in the coming days.”
The summit is taking place May 2-5 at the İstanbul Lütfi Kırdar International Congress and Exhibition Center. More than 100 companies and 3,000 visitors from 50 countries are participating in the fair.
A wide spectrum of industries utilizing card technologies attended the technologically savvy exhibition and summit, including banking and finance, IT and telecom, healthcare, logistics and cargo, leisure, education and tourism. Vital industry headliners will be discussed at the Cardist Technology Summit, to be held in conjunction with the exhibition.
Major issues related to card technology, including chip&PIN applications, brand loyalty, fraud prevention, card security, definition technologies and loyalty applications will be discussed at length by the industry’s leading professionals.
The Interbank Card Center (BKM) was established in 1990 with the partnership of 13 public and private Turkish banks for the purpose of providing solutions to the common problems and developing the rules and standards of credit and debit cards in Turkey within the card payment system. Vice President of Visa Europe Marc Temmerman also made a speech at the meeting and pointed out how dynamic the Turkish market is. He described Turkey’s performance in the transformation process to chip&PIN as “exciting” and claimed it was far better than that of Britain and France. Temmerman also predicted that payment methods will be diversified within five years. “A single market [understanding] will prevail,” he said.
source: Today’s Zaman
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