New V PAY/girocard card prevents fraud at ATMs
German banks have started issuing ten million V PAY/girocard cards
Frankfurt, 28 October 2009 –Good news for consumers, banks and saving banks in the fight against card misuse at ATMs: Visa Europe’s new debit card V PAY is positioned as “convenient and secure”. V PAY is based entirely on chip and PIN and puts an end to fraud at ATMs.
V PAY exclusively uses the secure EMV chip and co-operates with national payment systems in Europe without any problems – for Germany, this is girocard. With this so-called co-badging, a transaction taking place in Germany is processed via girocard and a transaction abroad via V PAY with chip and PIN.
V PAY cards are currently being increasedly issued in Germany by Visa member banks. In the first step, a round about ten million bank customers in total will receive a V PAY/girocard. Pioneers are the co-operative banking association headed by DZ BANK and WGZ BANK as well as Landesbank Berlin, Postbank and Baden-Württembergische Bank (BW-Bank). In October 2009, DZ BANK and WGZ BANK started the issuance of two million VR-BankCards as V PAY/girocard. Postbank will issue the new cards from November, BW-Bank from December on.
“Consumers will benefit from more security, merchants receive fewer complaints and banks can advise their clients instead of working on damage caused by fraud. And, best for the consumer, they can use V PAY in exactly the same way all over Europe: insert the card, enter the PIN and done”, underlines Ottmar Bloching, General Manager of Visa Europe in Germany.
“Payments by card need to be convenient and secure in order to be used extensively. With V PAY, we provide a secure alternative in the European debit market, which is of use for all parties involved”, says Jutta Müller-Liefeld, Vice President V PAY Marketing of Visa Europe.
