SCT, UnionPay to issue co-branded chip cards

KATHMANDU, Aug 20: SmartChoice Technologies (SCT), an electronic payments network, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UnionPay International (UPI) to issue SCT-UPI co-branded chip cards.

According to a press release issued on Friday SCT Managing Director Rabindra Bahadur Malla signed the MoU at a ceremony held in Shanghai, China.


UnionPay International (UPI), a subsidiary of China UnionPay, is focused on the growth and support of UnionPay's global business and it has enabled card acceptance in over 150 countries and regions with issuance in more than 40 countries and regions, the release said. "This partnership would enable cardholders from Nepal to enjoy a number of exclusive discount offers across various merchants worldwide," the release quoted Derek Chang, head of South Asia Development of UnionPay International, as saying.

According to the release, over 1.2 billion UnionPay chip cards have been issued thorughout the world. SCT has said it intends to deploy UICS (UnionPay IC Specifications) application, which is UPI's latest security application that complies with EMV standard. "These chip cards will employ Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA) method. This highly secure method of data authentication requires each chip card to have a cryptographic coprocessor which uses a pair of public and private keys to generate a cryptographic code that proves that the card initiating the transaction and the terminal are both genuine," read the release.

The agreement has come at a time when the Nepal Rastra Bank has been asking banks to upgrade their magnetic stripe cards to chip cards due to latter's superior security features.

"This move by SCT is to assist banks and financial institutes in its network to comply with the central banks directives," the release added.

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