MagTek and BCI Announce the Success of MagnePrint in Combating Card Fraud at More Than 500 ATMs

May 27, 2009 (PRLEAP.COM) Business News
Seal Beach, Calif. - May 27, 2009 – MagTek®, Inc., a global leader in secure electronic payment technology, today announced the success of its deployment of MagnePrint® card authentication technology by Banco Credito Inversiones (BCI), the third largest private bank in Chile. MagnePrint is a card security technology that transforms the everyday magnetic stripe card into a dynamic token which enables the bank to assess and validate, in real-time, the authenticity of magnetic stripe cards used in ATM and any other card payment transactions.

To date, more than 552 of the 996 BCI automatic teller machines have been equipped with MagnePrint. The bank has reported 4.4 million transactions on the upgraded ATMs with zero fraudulent transactions. This unique project involves continuing to implement MagnePrint in the ATM network.

In his statement, Mario Gaete, the COO & CIO of BCI, said, "MagnePrint has surpassed our estimates for fraud prevention. We have registered the magnetic fingerprints of more than one-half a million cardholders and have determined that we have experienced zero fraud in the ATMs that have been equipped with MagnePrint. We are in the process of adding MagnePrint to the remainder of our ATMs so we may continue to eliminate fraudulent withdrawals. We adopted MagnePrint because at BCI we take fraud seriously."

Annmarie Hart, President of MagTek, stated, "BCI is an example of outstanding leadership in the fight against skimming fraud. They decided to be pro-active in protecting their client base. BCI does not just replace funds that have been withdrawn illegally at their ATMs, they literally stand in front of their customers, and use MagnePrint technology to protect them from fraud before it occurs. MagnePrint provides BCI with a tangible security and marketing advantage over their competitors, which is helping them to attract new customers."

MagnePrints, sometimes called "Iron-Particle Fingerprints" are present on every magnetic stripe card in circulation. This type of card authentication uses a 54 byte dynamic value that changes with every swipe. It allows the card issuer to identify the card as authentic and to know that the data on the card has not been obtained from a criminal breach of a data processing facility. Over the course of a year, BCI seamlessly upgraded the readers in their ATMs to read the cardholder data and the MagnePrint, and without any need to re-issue their card portfolio. Now, if a counterfeit card is introduced at a MagnePrint enabled ATM, the transaction will be declined. The criminal will not receive the cash and the true cardholder will not suffer the anxiety or the inconvenience of account theft.

To learn more about MagnePrint and how this proven technology can protect your cardholders, please contact your MagTek representative at 562-546-6400.

About MagTek
Since 1972, MagTek has been a leading manufacturer of electronic devices and systems for the reliable issuance, reading, transmission and security of cards, checks, PINs and other identification documents. Leading with innovation and engineering excellence, MagTek is known for quality and dependability. Its products include secure card readers, check scanners, PIN Pads and distributed credential issuing systems. These products are used worldwide by financial institutions, retailers, hotels, law enforcement agencies and other organizations to provide secure and efficient electronic payment and identification transactions.

Today, MagTek continues to innovate with the development of a new generation of security centric products secured by MagneSafe™. By leveraging strong encryption, secure tokenization and real time authentication, MagneSafe products enable users to assess and validate the trustworthiness of credentials used for online identification, payment processing, and other high-value electronic transactions.

MagTek is based in Seal Beach, California and has sales offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, with independent distributors in over 40 countries. For more information, please visit www.magtek.com.