TORONTO, Nov. 5 /CNW/ - Scotiabank today announced the Bank is expanding
its distribution of computer chip-enabled card products in order to
participate in a Canadian payment industry trial of EMV chip technology in
Kitchener-Waterloo.
    "At Scotiabank, our first objective is to provide customers with the best
value for the financial products and services we offer," said Robin Hibberd,
Executive Vice-President, Personal Lending and Insurance, Scotiabank.
"Scotiabank is confident the new cards - with their proven ability to make an
already secure payment system even more secure - will provide a solid backbone
for our continued high levels of customer satisfaction and commitment."
    A chip card is a credit or debit card containing an embedded computer
chip, with the ability to store and process data. All chip cards used in the
Kitchener-Waterloo trial will require personal identification numbers (PINs)
for added security. EMV technology is named after the co-developers of the
global chip card standard, Europay, MasterCard and VISA.
    A Canadian leader in EMV innovations, Scotiabank introduced the country's
first chip-and-PIN VISA cards in the Bank's successful pilot project in
Barrie, Ontario, in 2003. About 15,000 chip-enabled Scotiabank VISA cards from
that pilot are still active in Barrie, conducting domestic and international
transactions.
    "Scotiabank is pleased to extend our successes with chip card technology
to the Canadian payment industry trial in Kitchener-Waterloo," said Jennifer
Young, District Vice-President, Ontario Central West District, Scotiabank.
"Our Barrie customers have benefited from greater convenience and added
security for some time now and Scotiabank looks forward to bringing these
gains to a larger client base."
    Scotiabank's participation in the Canadian payment industry's trial of
EMV chip technology - announced in October - will involve the phased roll out
of some 75,000 chip-and-PIN card products - both debit and credit - in
Kitchener-Waterloo. A national launch is planned later in 2008.
    Other members of the Canadian payments industry - including Interac,
MasterCard and Visa - are also migrating to chip-enabled debit and credit
cards, automated banking machines (ABMs) and merchant point of sale terminals,
as part of the Kitchener-Waterloo trial. The trial will test the
interoperability of payment industry cards and devices, customer communication
and adoption in a secure and controlled manner.

    Scotiabank is one of North America's premier financial institutions and
Canada's most international bank. With almost 60,000 employees, Scotiabank
Group and its affiliates serve approximately 12 million customers in some 50
countries around the world. Scotiabank offers a diverse range of products and
services including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking.
With $408 billion in assets (as at July 31, 2007), Scotiabank trades on the
Toronto (BNS) and New York Exchanges (BNS). For more information please visit
www.scotiabank.com.

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