The role of chip technology in the payments industry is growing rapidly, and issuers all over the world are embracing chip programs for a growing list of reasons. Chip is a powerful fraud-fighting tool. It's also a cash displacer, a loyalty builder, and a competitive differentiator. And consumers are realizing a whole new world of advantages with chip & PIN, from security to convenience to time savings.

The cornerstone of the new chip payments infrastructure is the global EMV standard for credit and debit payments, jointly developed by Europay, MasterCard and Visa in 1996. The latest version of the standard, EMV 2000, is a powerful, rich and comprehensive definition of chip payment functionality.

All over the world, MasterCard is helping customers leverage their investment in EMV to build market share, identify new revenue streams, and gain competitive advantage. EMV chip technology brings the potential for stronger security, wider acceptance, deeper relationships, and new marketing programs. MasterCard Chip Solutions give customers everything they need to migrate to chip and evolve their businesses on their own terms.

MasterCard M/Chip is our powerful EMV-compliant application for placing global debit and credit functionality on a smart card chip. With M/Chip, you can issue globally interoperable MasterCard-,Maestro®-, and Cirrus®-branded smart cards.

OneSmart MasterCard, our added-value OneSmart packages are designed to help our customers grow their business through improved:

• Customer acquisition by differentiating the basic card product with highly targeted added value propositions
• Customer retention by strengthening cardholder loyalty with personal preferences and personal data stored on the chip
• Card activation and usage through sophisticated multi-merchant loyalty programs or chip-level security for non-face-to-face transactions
• Innovation by enabling payment over new delivery channels and providing new card enhancements, such as e-coupons and e-tickets

Our goal is to make MasterCard Chip Solutions a clear answer to the opportunities and challenges of chip technology.