In another bid to stamp out fraud, banks have unveiled plans to introduce clever credit cards that use microchip technology to identify the users.

The cards are expected to be launched this year, says the Sunday Argus, seven years after the plan was first mooted. Absa spokesperson, Errol Smith, said the industry was about 80% ready for a roll-out, but some smaller retailers were still in the process of upgrading their software and hardware. The cards will be fitted with microchips containing the card holder's information and customers will use a personal identification number (PIN) instead of just swiping the card. The ‘smart cards’ have been available in Europe for a number of years. One of the major benefits of the EMV (Europay, Visa and MasterCard) cards is safety, and it was expected that the new cards would reduce card fraud – estimated to amount to more than R50m a year.
Full Sunday Argus report