London, 17th February 2009

New webinar provides guidance to banks as they prepare to roll out Chip & PIN cards

London, 16th February, 2009: Aconite, a leading provider of software and consulting services for managing business applications on chips in smart cards, tokens or mobiles, is running a webinar to provide timely support to banks in the Middle East in light of recent increased pressure from Central Banks in the region on banks operating locally to implement Chip and PIN cards. These mandates, issued in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, the Kingdom of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for example, require banks to quickly deploy chip technology to increase card security and reduce fraud. And whilst some countries have been mandated to migrate, neighbouring countries will also feel the pressure to increase security on their cards as fraudsters target lesser protected card schemes.

The complimentary webinar entitled “Your guide to introducing Chip & PIN cards” will provide practical advice and highlight important considerations to assist card issuers in making a smooth transition to Chip & PIN cards. The webinar programme will be led by Aconite’s David Worthington, Regional Manager for the Middle East and Bev Stevens, Senior Consultant. Collectively, they have over 25 years chip experience and have delivered various EMV and consulting projects in the Middle East. This includes assignments at numerous banks across Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as periods spent working directly for KNET and SAMA.

David comments “Aconite is well placed to assist banks taking up this challenge as the company’s team has been engaged in the migration of chip technology since the first pilot of chip cards in the UK in 1993. Through hands-on international experience, we have gained a thorough understanding of every stage of the migration process; our aim is to share best practice to make the migration process for card issuers in the Middle East as straight forward as possible”.

The webinar is schedule for 11am GMT on Wednesday, March, 4th. For more information or to register for the webinar please visit: www.aconite.net/newsEvents/webinars.aspx.

I've provided further information about the Aconite webinar below:

"Your guide to introducing Chip and PIN cards in the Middle East"

Overview

It was recently announced that the UAE Central Bank has requested that all banks operating in the country are required to upgrade their ATM cards to Chip & PIN cards to reduce the risk of debit and credit card fraud, whilst in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Central Bank of Bahrain has also issued mandates for Chip & PIN implementation for both Issuers and Acquirers. Whilst some countries are being driven to increase the security of their card base by such national mandates, neighbouring countries will quickly feel the pressure to follow suit as fraudsters will inevitably target lesser protected card schemes.

As a card issuer in the Middle East, what exactly does that mean from you? What are the cost implications? And just how do you go about embarking on such a migration project?

Aconite has been helping financial institutions define their Chip & PIN strategy since the very first chip pilot in the UK back in early 1990s. We would like to share with you practical advice and considerations to help you make a smooth transition from magnetic stripe to chip cards.