EMV FastTrack enables EMV smart cards to be tested directly from a desktop PC, allowing banks to test high volumes of smart card transactions quickly and efficiently by simulating the ATM environment.

The rising level of plastic card fraud is a key driver for the adoption of EMV smart card technology. In the UK alone, plastic card fraud rose to GBP411.4 million in 2001, a 30 percent increase on losses in 20001. Much of this fraud is due to the limitations of today's magnetic strip card, which has remained largely unchanged for over 15 years.

Visa, for example, are beginning to encourage banks to accelerate the adoption of EMV smart cards by changing charging structures so that chip card transactions cost banks less to process than those made on magnetic strip cards. Banks that are slow to upgrade their networks to support the new technology will not only continue to lose money through fraud, but they will also be penalised by the payment networks.

The introduction of EMV chip cards into bank ATMs and point of sale networks will necessitate significant changes in the ATM software and payment switches, which drive the ATM networks. Because chip card intelligence and information storage is far greater than that of the traditional magnetic strip card, the number of potential errors that can occur is greatly increased. A second factor to consider is that many errors will result in the card automatically blocking itself, causing much inconvenience for the user. Therefore, the level of testing needs to be vastly increased, making it impossible for banks to conduct solely manual testing.

To successfully introduce EMV support, banks will require sophisticated test tools that enable chip card, ATM and host simulation. Level Four's EMV FastTrack tool enables the creation of EMV compatible downloads and full end-to-end transaction testing directly from the smart card, through the ATM and up to the host system.

"The introduction of smart cards is the biggest single change in ATM technology for 15 years and banks have no choice but to test their ATM systems exhaustively to ensure that they can support this new technology," says Martin Macmillan, CEO, Level Four. "Customers have come to rely upon ATMs as a key part of their daily life, so banks cannot afford to lose customer confidence through teething problems."

"While meeting EMV compliance means a major technology change for a bank, it should not have any visible bearing on the customer. The use of ATMs is much higher profile than 15 years ago, so banks cannot afford to make mistakes.

Traditional testing approaches will need to be considerably enhanced, and EMV FastTrack will enable the acceleration of this process."

Level Four has already been working with a number of UK banks to help prepare them for EMV compliance.

Level Four's EMV FastTrack tool is a new component of the ATM Channel Development Suite - a comprehensive toolkit that allows financial institutions to develop, test and rapidly deploy new content and applications within their ATM delivery channels. The ATM Channel Development Suite enables financial institutions to offer relevant, personalised and interactive functionality to customers through existing ATM networks. 1 Figures according to the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS)