Until relatively recently the overwhelming majority of credit or debit cards issued to individuals around the world relied on either the raised characters on the card or the magnetic stripe on the reverse of the card to capture the cardholders unique details. This information includes data such as account number and expiry date, which are required to process the payment.

Criminals have targeted credit cards since their inception and unfortunately the magnetic stripe technology can't provide the level of security required to combat the threat. This is because criminals are able to copy the information held on the magnetic stripe of the card and use it to make a duplicate card.

After an exhaustive search of available technologies, card associations such as Visa and MasterCard identified smart cards as the ideal solution to the problem.

A smart card looks similar to the normal magnetic stripe cards we are all familiar with, but on the face side of the card towards the left hand side is located a computer chip, usually silver or gold in colour, where information can be securely stored.

The world-wide migration from magnetic stripe to smart cards within the financial payments industry has begun and, although fraud is not the only driver, smart cards are already proving to ba a deterrent.

P3™ is sold to card-issuing banks that need to generate the extra data required for smart cards, or to companies known as bureaux, which card-issuing banks sometimes use to personalize their cards.

Personalization is the process that takes blank cards and adds your personal details, such as account number and name, to the card. Your details are also added to the magnetic stripe and, in the case of smart cards, to the chip on the card as well.

P3™ takes a file of cardholder data records, usually the one that banks were using to issue magnetic stripe cards, and processes each record to produce the additional data required for smart cards. It then creates an output file containing data, which can be loaded onto the chip.

As a minimum, P3™ adds the necessary cryptographically derived data (keys, certificates, signatures) or if required can create the entire set of chip data given only the normal magnetic stripe input file

In order to perform the tasks required, P3™ maintains a database of cryptographic information (master keys, issuer certificates etc) for each smart card application, card issuer and scheme provider supported.