Amex has approved the use of BNZ's patented, Liquid Encryption Numbers technology, designed in New Zealand to prevent skimming of credit cards. Ironically, BNZ's Australian parent is still dragging its heels.
BNZ’s Liquid Encryption technology, that prevents card “skimming”, has been approved for use on American Express cards, joining Visa and Mastercard, the bank said today.
Ironically, BNZ's Australian parent, NAB, has yet to adopt the NZ-developed security technology, nearly a year after it was first announced (although it says a roll-out is on the way; see below).
Skimming is where a fraudster captures the information on an Eftpos or credit card’s magnetic stripe without the customer’s knowledge. This could be via a card reader attached to an ATM or a waiter who uses a pocket reader on the way to the til.
The security technology was invented and developed in New Zealand by BNZ’s Fraud Initiative Manager Michael Turner and makes the data on the magnetic strip dynamic, causing it to change whenever a customer visits a BNZ ATM.
Called Liquid Encryption Numbers (LEN) this means a criminal cannot use information coped from the card for fraud.
BNZ holds the global patent and rolled the technology out on BNZ debit cards, Visa and Mastercard credit cards in 2008. The press release reports a subsequent decrease in fraud experiences with losses from the most common form of card fraud dropping by more than half.
And now Amex is on board, starting this week.
American Express Vice President and Group General Manager, Global Network Services Katrina Stuart said the company was excited to offer an “extra layer” of security to BNZ cardmembers.
“BNZ and American Express each have a strong reputation for providing the highest levels of protection to all of their customers. Liquid Encryption is simply another, proven way of giving BNZ American Express Cardmembers the peace of mind that their personal financial data is safe and secure.”
BNZ Chief Operating Officer Stephen Mockett said BNZ's parent National Australia Bank (NAB) are adopting the card nationwide but said he did not know a specific timeline for this. He said the parent bank was very large and thus the roll out of BNZ's LEN technology was quite complex, but that the bank was undergoing a big technology upgrade or core systems replacement, which most banks were doing.
"All our stuff is extremely old."
