Dubai trade
stands to benefit from upgraded security software in the form of UnionPay
International certification, an official bank card personalization program
developed by Oberthur Technologies (OT), a France-based global provider of embedded security software products and services.
In its endeavors to become a leading luxury tourist destination, Dubai has invested in the state-of-the-art technology to make financial transactions for visitors as smooth as possible. By using UnionPay - a platform native to China - the emirate can accommodate Asian tourists more easily.
UnionPay Middle East General Manager Han Wang expressed satisfaction with the certification, noting that the UAE can now process UnionPay cards globally.
“Furthermore, UnionPay International will contribute to local banks … as they will no longer need to spend money on importing personalized card plastic,” Wang said.
UnionPay International certification was designed for both magstripe and EMV card use. EMV, the global standard for credit and debit payment cards based on chip card technology, derives its name from original developers Europay, MasterCard and Visa and processes credit and debit card payments with cards possessing microprocessor chips.
OT’s Dubai location serves most banks in the UAE as well as institutions across the Middle East and in Africa with its next-generation manufacturing facility.
“It is a great milestone for OT’s Dubai Service Center to receive this accreditation from UnionPay International,” Muzaffar Khokhar, OT’s regional president for Russia, Middle East and Africa, said.
A magnetic stripe card, sometimes called swipe card or magstripe, is read by swiping past a magnetic reading head. Unlike magnetic stripe transactions, every EMV chip card transaction contains dozens of pieces of information to be exchanged between the card, the terminal and the acquiring bank or processing host.
Most ATMs and merchants in the UAE now accept UnionPay cards.
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