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ATMs TO ACCEPT ONLY BANKCARDS IN JULY
- 1 March 2003
By July 2003, all automated teller machines (ATMs) should be upgraded to accept a common, chip-based smart card known as Bankcard.
From that month, the ATMs will no longer accept the current magnetic strip ATM cards withdrawals and other transactions.
"There are more than 11 million magnetic strip ATM cards in circulations," said Datuk Amirsham A Aziz, chairman of Bankcard coordinator Malaysian Electornic Payment System Sdn Bhd (MEPS).
He said the financial institutions will undertake an accelerated card conversion execise to exchange existing ATM cards with Bankcards.
"We are targeting end-June 2003 to complete the conversion and there-after all ATM machines will stop accepting magnetic strip ATM cards," Amirsham said.
Bankcard, a cashless payment multipurpose scheme introduced by the country's 10 anchor banks and two Islamic banks, offers access to three payment applications.
Besides the conventional ATM transactions, the card also incorporates e-Debit (electronic debit oint-of-sale) and e-Purse (electornic storage of cash) applications.
The Bankcard implementatio also involves the network infrastructure upgrade to support the deployment of laoding devices and CARD Acceptance Devices (CAD) at retailers.
The 12 financial institutions have from the last quarter of 2002, invested to upgrade equipment and infrastructure, and educate the public about Bankcards.
The participating banks are Affin Bank Bhd, Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd, AmBank Group, Bankd Islam Malaysia Bhd, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd, Bumiputra-Commerce Bank Bhd, EON Bank Group, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Maybank Group, Public Bank Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd and Southern Bank Bhd.
Each bank will arry out its own programmes to inform customers on the conversion execise, Amirsham who is managing director of Malayan Banking Bhd, said at the launch of Bankcard and its logo in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
More than 3,800 ATMs nationwide are now fully upgraded to total chip-based ATM transactions.
About 975 ATMs allow e-Purse (also konwn as MEPS Cash) loading and over 3,000 merchants are equipped for Bankcard transactions.
Bumiputra-Commerce, for example, has issued over 61,000 Bankcards to its new and existing customers since mid-2002.
The bank, which has 1.7 million active users and over 720 ATMs, started a pilot project to useBankcards with 2,000 of its staff in May last year.
It has set aside RM40 million for the overall implementation.
MEPS managing director Datuk Mohd Hata Robani said Bankcard is part of an overall initiative to promote cashless payment in the country.
Participating banks are working with toll operators and relevant authorities to use Bankcard as an alternative mode of payment to pay tolls.
"We are targeting end-June for toll payment via Bankcard," Hata said.
The card's issue price will be determined by the respective banks and communicated to their clinets, he said, adding that the fee could be "from zero to RM8".
The smart chip technology, Hata said, makes Bankcards more tamper-resistant with the data stored significantly harder to extract and copy compared to the current magnetic-based ATM cards.
"The enhanced security will address security concerns such as card tampering of forgery. Bankcard also have a higher information storage capacity which is only accessible to authorised parties," he said.
Meanwhile, several banks yesterday released separate announcements to infrom their customers about the ATM card upgrade.
Maybank said beginning March 1, Maybank and Mayban Finance customers can upgrade to Maybankcard at nor charge. There is also no annual service fee for Maybankcards.
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