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Banks will start upgrading to IC cards next month

Starting next month, holders of regular cash-withdrawal cards will have to upgrade to more secure integrated-circuit (IC) cards in a bid to counter the increasingly severe card-fraud problem.

According to a decision by the Bankers' Association of the Republic of China (銀行公會), inter-bank transactions by means of magnetic cards will be stopped from next year, which will gradually eliminate the more than 64.5 million magnetic cards currently in circulation.

Most banks provide two kinds of IC cards for customers to choose from. In addition to IC-embedded cash-withdrawal cards, some banks are expected to launch the so-called IC-combo cards, which combine cash-withdrawal, credit, cash-advance, stored-value and smart debit services on one card.

Combo cards also give banks an opportunity to expand their credit-card market share when their savings-account customers upgrade their original magnetic cards.

"Usually the banks hoping to increase customers' use of credit cards will emphasize the issuing of combo cards, such as Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫) and Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行)," said Lesley Yu (於知雯), a public relations official at Fubon Commercial Bank (富邦銀行).

Fubon is set to start converting its 550,000 cash-withdrawal cards after it formally merges with TaipeiBank (台北銀行) on Jan. 1 next year, Yu said.

Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託), with over 3 million bank cards in circulation, is expected to convert 2 million cards by the end of this year, according to the bank's public relations department.

Chinatrust will not issue combo cards but only chip-embedded cards, which integrate cash-withdrawal, deposit and securities transactions.

Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) will offer gifts to customers who apply for combo cards starting in the middle of next month.

According to figures provided by the government-funded Financial Information Service Co (財金公司), 14,550 ATMs, or 73 percent of all cash machines in the country, had been modified to read chip-embedded cards by June 25.

No handling fee will be charged for the card conversion. Cardholders should bring their ID cards and personal stamps to the bank after receiving a notice from their card issuers.
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