Banks in Venezuela will be provided assistance in shifting to a new high-tech smart credit card claimed to better protect their customers from fraud and identity theft. The support will be conjointly rendered by Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, and two banking technology leaders Corporación Cardtech, Venezuela's largest supplier of magnetic stripe bank cards, and Newtech Solutions, a consulting and technical support organization that specializes in EMV.

The agreement will allow banks in Venezuela working with Corporación Cardtech and Newtech Solutions to gain access to expertise, consulting services, smart cards and technology from Gemalto, the world's leading provider of EMV cards. According to some estimates in the first year of the partnership 8 million EMV cards will be issued. At the moment there are approximately 16 million debit and credit cards in use in Venezuela.

In light of increasing card frauds occurring mainly at the expense of illegal copying of magnetic stripe information card issuers and merchants were charged a liability to pay fines for their failure to issue or accept EMV cards. The liability will come into effect starting July 2009. the advantage of EMV cards is that they have an embedded microprocessor and software with security features. the sources report that transactions made on EMV cards are more secure and unlikely to result in card clone.