This is how Display Cards revolutionize bank cards in Asia

Earlier this year, Standard Chartered Bank launched a novel display card solution in Singapore. While the card looks and functions like a regular payment card – debit, credit and ATM - the Display Card has touch-sensitive buttons and an embedded LCD screen, combining features such as EMV payment, One-time Password (OTP) generation and transaction signing for e-banking.

This innovative converged product has the potential to become the form factor of choice for bank customers in the future. It makes online banking more convenient and secure via the transaction signing process. To authenticate payments, customers enter data such as the last four digits of a payee’s account number into their Display Card. Then, a six-digit security code is generated for the user to sign or validate the transaction. This authentication process is more sophisticated and provides added protection against online fraud and threats.

Contrast this to the current solution most people use – bulky security tokens for generating passcodes. As most Singaporeans hold at least 2 or 3 bank accounts, it can become a hassle to carry multiple tokens around. The elegant credit card-sized Display Card solves this problem as customers can keep in their wallets. And looking to the future, the screen on the Display Card could be used for additional features, such as showing a real-time credit balance, or reward points and transaction information.

For banks, the Display Card also acts as a valuable marketing and branding tool. In addition, the multi-functional payment and OTP token features of the Display Card means that it is used more frequently and keeps the bank’s brand top of wallet and subsequently top-of-mind with the customer.

The Display Card’s security technology is built on open standards, which allows collaboration across borders, companies, systems and algorithms. While ‘openness’ may sound like the technology – especially in a highly sensitive sector like banking – is vulnerable to security breaches, the opposite couldn’t be truer. Open standards will encourage faster and better innovation as all industry players are able to collaborate and build a more user-friendly, robust and secure eBanking offering in an age where online fraud is rampant and advancing.

What also makes the Display Card truly effective is the support from the back-end server. The server supports a wide variety of authentication technologies and is highly configurable, which means that banks can retain full freedom of choice when making decisions regarding authentication technology, addressed customer segments and/or business areas, preferred digital channels and all the way down to delivery methods. Being completely token-vendor agnostic, it supports open standards, and also proprietary technologies from other industry players. This future-proofs banks’ investment and makes it easy to scale and support new technologies that may be developed in the years to come.

In a world where online fraud is a constant threat, the Display Card is an elegant and secure solution to meet consumers’ need for enhanced banking services, with a form factor that enhances end-user adoption. Its robust security gives consumers the confidence to carry out higher value transactions and provides financial institutions with a strong differentiating factor for their online banking services.