Firm in plan to issue more secure payment cards

• EMV enabled cards are said to be more secure than the black strip ones which are widely used in Kenya and in Africa but many countries on the continent have already started racing to become compliant with the requirements that have already spread in large markets such as the United States and Europe.
• After the upgrade, Paynet, which operates the PesaPoint payment access points, will also have the capability to issue cards from other global payment companies such as MasterCard.
• The use of debit, credit and other payment cards has been growing in the country as consumers have adopted their use in place of cash.

Payment services company, Paynet, has announced plans to start issuing new generation payment cards which have higher anti-fraud technology features with the help of VISA International.

Bernard Matthewman, Paynet’s group chief executive officer, yesterday said the company will be launching Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) enabled debit, credit and other payment cards in the Kenyan market next month.

The new generation cards are expected to replace the old black-strip ones.

“What we are now doing is an upgrade of our processing center. We will launch it in September which is next month and announce our first customer on EMV which is a very substantial customer,” said Mr Matthewman.

EMV enabled cards are said to be more secure than the black strip ones which are widely used in Kenya and in Africa but many countries on the continent have already started racing to become compliant with the requirements that have already spread in large markets such as the United States and Europe.

Already global payment technology companies Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) have announced deadlines for the switch, after which the liability of fraudulent transactions will shift to issuers and acquirers if their systems are not compliant with the new requirements.

“What this (the upgrade) will allow us to do is issue EMV chip cards which our current system has got a limitation on and also finalise on PCI DSS certification,” said Mr Matthewman.

After the upgrade, Paynet, which operates the PesaPoint payment access points, will also have the capability to issue cards from other global payment companies such as MasterCard.

The use of debit, credit and other payment cards has been growing in the country as consumers have adopted their use in place of cash.

According to Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data released this week, the value of debit card transactions rose to Sh386.6 billion between January and June this year from Sh211.2 billion over the same period last year.

Credit card transactions rose to Sh2.79 billion from Sh1.89 billion over the same period of time, with the value and number of transactions at the point-of-sale machines jumping to Sh46.99 billion from Sh25.88 billion and 3.8 million from three million respectively.

Commercial banks had issued 8.12 million debit cards as at the end of June from 7.07 million in the same period last year and 131,397 credit cards from 119,287 as reflecting the effect of new products to attract high net worth customers.

The value of debit and credit card transactions increased by 83.04 and 47.62 per cent respectively as the value and number of transactions at the point-of-sale machines rose by 81.56 and 26.78 per cent respectively.