November 8, 2007

CUETS Financial Ltd. and Desjardins Group have both completed their first chip-card transactions.

CUETS, a wholly owned subsidiary of MBNA Canada Bank, said its transaction was processed using a MasterCard® chip credit card at Nature's Own Sausage & Meats located in Regina.

"The success of this chip transaction is a major milestone for CUETS Financial and the credit union system, taking us one step closer to introducing our customers and clients to chip technology," said Brian Guillemin, vice-president, CUETS Financial Chip Centre of Excellence.

 "This achievement is a tribute to our team of over 30 people who, along with the contributions of our suppliers and partners, have shown dedication and commitment to this project over the past year.

CUETS is taking part in the Canadian payments industry chip trial now under way in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON. The  trial of chip-based payments is designed to assess communications to customers and merchants and allow participants to monitor merchant and consumer awareness and adoption before continuing with the national chip rollout.

The trial will also allow participants to ensure the interoperability of their respective cards and devices in a secure and controlled manner.

The K-W trial is expected to continue through to October 2008, at which point the deployment of chip-enabled cards, ABMs and merchant terminals will roll out nationally over the next several years.

Desjardins is also participating in the K-W trial and will officially launch its chip cards   next spring in the Saint-Jérôme region, north of Montréal.

"These historic transactions have been carried out with success,” said Jean Yelle, vice-president of Desjardins Card Services. “They mark an important step in moving toward this new technology for electronic payments and banking transactions.”