Furtwangen, January 28, 2005
In a special promotion, BAWAG, P.S.K. and easypay are now giving free chip card readers to the first 50,000 customers who order the new, also subsidized, signature function on their Maestro card.
This is an active decision-making aid for secure online banking via signature card.
The supplier for these devices is the German company REINER SCT, based in Furtwangen.
“We are delighted with the order and hope that this example will also set a precedent in Germany,” says Carsten Sommer.
After all, the sponsorship model would bring state-of-the-art technology to broad sections of the population.
The chip card readers required for the Austrian signature card are funded by the Federal Ministry of Finance in Vienna and Europay, a subsidiary of the Austrian banks. Each card reader is sponsored with ten euros. BAWAG, P.S.K. and easypay, a subsidiary of BAWAG, are subsidizing the devices by a further EUR 17.95 per device.
The campaign, which is limited to a total of 200,000 devices nationwide in Austria, is handled via a voucher that is issued when the signature card is ordered.
The signature card is an open standard that can be used to provide a legally valid electronic signature.
In addition to banks and public authorities, other sectors with online business models, such as insurance companies, can also benefit from the development of this security infrastructure.
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