Smart Cards in Payment Systems

The characteristics of smart cards make them particularly suitable for use in payment systems. The smart card is logically linked to a bank account, and after unilateral authentication of the card or mutual authentication of card and the background system, a previously entered sum is transferred. Naturally, PIN verification is also performed in the smart card or background system as part of the transaction. Both of these scenarios are based on a background system that controls all of the activities. However, there are other means and methods of making payments that can be implemented by exploiting these capabilities. Some of them are described in this chapter. The German Girocard system is presently one of the largest and most complex payment systems using smart cards. This includes not only the transaction processes, but also the underlying logistics of semiconductor fabrication, card personalization, and card issuing. Controlled Vocabulary Terms memory cards; smart cards