Display Cards – coming soon to a bank near you
A phenomenon often underestimated by trend-watchers is how innovations can extend the lifespan of an established technology. Over the past 60 years the functionality and security of the ubiquitous plastic payment card has been enhanced by first embossing, then magnetic stripes, then chip technology. “Display Cards” may well be the next significant leap forward in this evolution.
A Display Card looks and feels exactly like a conventional plastic card, and can be used in the normal manner for payments or ATM withdrawals, but also features a small LCD display, together with one or more touch-sensitive buttons for operating the display. Recent advances in terms of efficient LCD technology, super-thin lithium batteries, and robust manufacturing processes mean that Display Cards are now reliable and relatively affordable – the current price per card can be as low as £10, and will drop with volume production.
The first way in which Display Cards are likely to be used is as authentication devices. Turkish bank TEB, for example, has recently completed a successful pilot of a MasterCard card which displays a one-time-password (OTP) upon entry of the cardholder’s PIN. The OTP can then be used for secure online banking, or secure e-commerce by treating the OTP as a 3D Secure code (see Bulletin Issue 288, last month). In other words, this is Remote Chip Authentication (RCA) without the need for a separate personal card reader. An even simpler solution is to use a single-button Display Card to generate the OTP without entering a PIN – when combined with a conventional password this is just as secure, and considerably more cost-effective than the common practice of issuing customers with proprietary OTP tokens for online banking.
The same technology can also be used to display useful information such as current balance, available credit, transaction details, reward points, targeted marketing messages from the issuer, and so on. An important point here is that the EMV chip on a modern payment card stores a wealth of valuable information, and this information can be updated via an EMV scripting message every time the card goes on-line. Display Cards mean that for the first time, cardholders can gain access to this information without needing to insert their card in a POS or ATM terminal, and exactly when they need it, such as just before a purchase. This represents real added value for cardholders, and this in turn is expected to foster a new wave of innovative card products by issuers.
Display Cards are still very new, but initial results in the field are encouraging. Consumers are enthusiastic. Recent MasterCard European research found that 41% of consumers surveyed would sign up for a Balance Display Card if offered one by their bank, and of these, 57% would use their card more. On average, the consumers who wanted a card would be prepared to pay between €10 and €15 for them. Not surprisingly, both MasterCard and Visa are actively marketing Display Cards, and scores of banks worldwide have launched pilots. Watch this space!
Nick Collin, Banking Automation Bulletin, June 2011