Bank of America Merrill Lynch
(BofA Merrill) has
launched chip-and-PIN corporate cards for its customers who travel
internationally.
The new card
is a “direct result of customer demand”, BofA Merrill has
said in statement.
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BofA Merrill aims to improve acceptance and
security for cardholders with the new EMV card.
EMV-technology supported cards – named after
its original developers Europay, MasterCard and Visa – are safer
than magnetic stripe cards and feature embedded microprocessor
chips that store and protect encrypted account data.
Head of commercial cards and comprehensive
payables for BofA Merrill, Kevin Phalen, said, “Corporate travel
cards help clients manage the complexity that comes with a growing
volume of employees who travel abroad.
“We are very pleased to now offer our US
clients an improved solution that advances their convenience and
security.”
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By GlobalDataEarlier this year,
JP Morgan Chase announced plans of introducing its first
chip-and-PIN card. US Bank went a step ahead and launched
FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa credit card that supports both
the US-typical magnetic stripe technology as well as an EMV-chip on
Visa’s contactless payWave solution.
Citi launched its chip-and-PIN card for
customers travelling abroad over the summer and Wells Fargo began
testing a Visa Smart Card in April with customers who travel
internationally.
Phalen said the global utility of the card was
an essential factor in its design.
“We designed this card to be a solution that
travelers can use in any region of the world – not just a US dollar
card that has a chip,” Phalen added.
Cardholders in America largely have to
manually sign forms when making purchases abroad as European POS
terminals do not support magnetic stripe technology with which
American cards are embedded.
EMV technology is currently used throughout
Europe and other parts of the world and has yet to see widespread
use in the US.
