|
 |
 |
 |
In Austria, the migration
to EMV is steered by Austrian Payment Systems Services.
|
In Austria, the smart bank card is nothing new. This
means of payment was introduced in 1994 as a result of the country's
adoption of the national "Maestro" standard ("Pay Chip"
technology). One the companies which developed this standard was APSS
(Austrian Payment Systems Services). The former daughter company of
Europay Austria is now owned by the Austrian commercial banks and
the Austrian Central Bank (which holds 38% of APSS' equity). APSS
is responsible for processing 85% percent of the Austrian cashless
payment transactions and for the software solutions used by the Austrian
electronic payment system. APSS is also issuing technical certifications
for hardware, selling equipment (Eftpos terminals, etc.), and development
and processing services.
Under the responsibility of APSS, the current rollout of EMV should
be complete by 2007. ATMs have been EMV-compliant since 2002. POS:
By next July, all programming and test phases will be complete. The
second half of 2004 will be devoted to implementing EMV pilot tests.
Then, EMV will be deployed on-line, starting in early 2005 and off-line
the following year to all Eftpos infrastructure. For the actual "Maestro"
bankcard, the rollout started in October 2003. Until today (March
2004), 1.2 million EMV cards were deployed in Austria. Austria Card,
an affiliate of the Austrian Central Bank, has also launched the manufacture
of combined "Pay Chip/EMV" cards to replace four million
cards in circulation by the end of the year. Two batches of one million
units each will then be manufactured between 2005 and 2006.
*www.apss.at
 |
|
 |
|
AUSTRIA:
KEY FIGURES |
|
|
Almost
10 million bank debit and credit cards.
7500 ATMs (network managed by APSS). |
|
89000
retailer points of acceptance.
72500
Eftpos terminals (network managed by APSS). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Back
to top of page |
| |
|
|
|
