Fiserv Inc.'s credit union clients may soon be able to offertheir members personalized smart chip cards, the financial servicestechnology firm said.

EMV, or smart cards, rely on an embedded micro processing chipand personal identification number to sharply cut the risks offraud from fraudulent cards manufactured with stolen card data.They have already become the industry standard in Europe and otherplaces overseas.

“As the U.S. payments industry looks for ways to minimizecard-related fraud loss and comply with new data securitystandards, EMV provides a next-generation alternative to magneticstripe bank cards,” said Jorge Diaz, president, Output Solutionsfor Fiserv.

The EMV chip requires the merchant terminal to provide a PINbefore it allows the card data to be read. Once the PIN is enteredand verified, the smart card chip authorizes payment.

According to EMVCo, the organization responsible for managingthe EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) specifications globally,approximately one billion EMV cards have been issued worldwide and15.4 million point-of-sale terminals accept EMV cards.

“Increasingly, U.S. travelers abroad find that their magneticstripe bank cards are rejected,” said Diaz. “This leads toembarrassing and compromising situations that can now be avoidedwith EMV chip cards. Along with greater convenience and merchantacceptance, cardholders may also benefit from reduced cardfraud.”

The adoption of dual-interface chip technology also helpsprepare the U.S. payment infrastructure for the arrival ofnear-field communication (NFC) mobile payments by building thenecessary infrastructure to accept and process chip transactionsthat support either a signature or PIN at the point of sale.

“Fiserv is committed to delivering the payments technology thatour clients want now, while anticipating what they will need in thefuture,” said Diaz. “In 2012, Fiserv will also implement solutionsto process EMV transactions.”

Visa recently announced a program of incentives designed to helpthe U.S. payments industry move to EMV cards as an industrystandard by the middle of the decade.

Other credit union industry participants also adopting EMVtechnology, including PSCU Financial Services, United Nations FCU, PenFed and JackHenry & Associates.