Ubi To Unveil Smart Card By Oct

Smart Card, the poor banks alternative to an ATM card, is making rapid inroads into the financial services sector with United Bank of India (UBI), the city-based bank, planning to introduce the facility in 10 Calcutta branches by October.

Elecom Fiscal Services, which will be executing the order for Smart Cards for UBI, were also the vendors of the Smart Cards introduced by Dena Bank in February 1997 and in 15 post offices of New Delhi. What is intriguing and different about this new technology is that the Smart Card offers almost exactly the service that an ATM card offers, at a fraction of the cost.

 

This cost advantage is not just to the customer of the bank, but more importantly, banks which could not afford to install the elaborate equipment needed for an any time money facility can now offer similar services to their customers by making a capital investment which is much less and more within reach of these banks. This microchip-attached card is like an electronic purse as has the details of the card holders balance in the bank and records of the last ten transactions.

A card holder can access any branch of the bank for depositing or withdrawing money and the details of the transaction as well as the new balance will be recorded in the microchip of the card.

This card obviates the need for a network within the branches of the bank as the card transmits the required information to the banks processing machine where the transaction is being done. This is because the capital investment needed to extend ATM to remote areas is not cost effective.

The response time becomes much quicker also, as data does not have to travel distances and this is true even when transactions are done all over the country as the required information for the transaction is stored in the card itself.

The advantage of using a Smart Card is that money need not be carried around and the facility is being offered at much lower cost to the customer.