Oberthur Technologies (OT), a leading French
digital security company, recently was selected by Kuwait’s Boubyan Bank to
offer its first contactless payment cards.
OT’s contactless payment system, which was
started in 1997, is a non-cash payment transaction that does not require a
physical connection between the consumer payment device and the physical
point-of-sale (POS) terminal. With the backing of state-of-the-art technology,
this contactless payment technology facilitates faster and extremely safe
transactions in which the data transferred from the card and the POS is
encrypted.
“OT is already leading the market in this
domain, but certainly Boubyan’s launch of OT contactless card will encourage
other banks in Kuwait and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region to adopt the contactless technology,”
Muzaffar Khokhar, OT’s business director of financial services institutions for
Russia, Middle East and Africa, told Gulf
News Journal. “Indeed, the implementation was very smooth, and the bank was
the first to launch it successfully in Kuwait.”
As an innovative solutions provider and market
leader in cards and payments, OT has introduced many of the latest technologies
in the cards and payments domain. The company has a broad range of cutting-edge
products and solutions, such as its MOTION CODE™ with a dynamic card verification
value (CVV), which aims to reduce online fraud and protecting customers when
they connect, authenticate and pay.
Khokhar said contactless technology is
prevalent in many developing countries around the world, and banking sectors in
some countries, such as Australia and Canada, rely almost completely on
contactless payments. Among the GCC countries, the UAE is an early adopter of
this technology, with most of the banks in the country having migrated to OT’s
dual interface technology, especially in their credit card portfolios.
Compared with traditional payment transaction
procedures, contactless technology provides a host of benefits to customers.
Primarily, it provides convenience and ease of use, as transactions are processed
by simply placing the card close to a terminal.
“As you don’t have to hand over the card to the
processor, customers should not be worried about the card data being copied or
stolen,” Khokhar said. “Therefore, it is more secure, with the card not leaving
the customer’s hand. It also facilitates faster transactions, as contactless
transaction processing at the POS is faster than for current contact chip
transactions.”
Boubyan Bank launched the first contactless
payment cards at the end of 2015 for Visa and MasterCard credit cards, and it
is currently launching the same technology for its debit cards. With OT’s
technology, the bank focuses on significantly enhancing the shopping experience
for its customers, who can make payments simply by waving their card in front
of a contactless terminal.
“We are extremely happy to have been
selected by Boubyan Bank to provide the first contactless payment cards in
Kuwait,” Khokhar said. “OT has worked very closely with
Boubyan and shares its strategy of introducing state-of-the-art innovative
solutions. We are confident that it will revolutionize the banking landscape in
Kuwait.”
