Diebold was the first ATM manufacturer to join the Visa EU Smart Partner Program when the initiative launched in Autumn 2002. The program is designed to encourage migration to EMV technology by providing discounts or extended warranties to Visa EU members on ATMs, POS terminals, test tools, card services and card management solutions.

As a partner, Diebold also works closely with Visa to promote the benefits of EMV through a series of joint initiatives, marketing programs and seminars. By sharing plans regularly with Visa, on trends, product development and technology standards, the program will ensure a faster migration to EMV across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Benefits to financial institutions for adopting EMV Technology will range from fraud reduction to interoperability and support of multi-terminal and multi-card applications. 

EMV is the new global standard governing the use of chip cards, developed by Europay, MasterCard and Visa, which formed the EMVCo. EMV chip cards have proved to be extremely effective in the battle against card fraud in many EU countries. From 1st January 2005, the EMV standard is mandatory for all POS devises and ATMs in Western Europe.  

Diebold currently manages over 100,000 ATM’s across Europe.  The EMV migration process presents a significant logistical challenge to banks and their partners, such as Diebold.  Drawing on its experience of managing large scale projects, such as the Euro conversion program, Diebold is now set to take on its next IT logistical challenge.

As part of its push to achieve this deadline, Diebold has recently secured EMV Level 2 certification of its ‘Kernel’ for ATM software Applications. The ‘Kernel’ can be integrated into any EMV terminal software, allowing it to become EMV 4.0 Level 2 compliant and facilitating a much faster and more cost effective implementation and certification process.  

Diebold’s enhanced strategic and technological relationship with Visa will also ensure that its financial sector customers have knowledge of and access to all EMV developments in self-service technology. It will also enable customers to leverage even greater competitive advantage from their new and existing investments in financial self-service systems. Diebold’s EMV consolidated experience combined with its new EMV software applications, and the EMV ‘Kernel’ Level 2 certified, will enable financial institutions to use ATMs as multi-purpose devices for a wide range of services related to banking and complimentary markets. 

The Smart Partner Program currently operates throughout the countries within Visa’s EU region, which comprises, western, northern and southern Europe, along with Israel and Turkey. Other Smart Partners involved in the EU program include: CardBASE Technologies Ltd, Hypercom EMEA Inc, KaSYS and Nova Card Services Ltd.