Four European banks have announced their intention to take part in pilot programs launched by Visa Europe to test the prototype Visa card with a one-time code which was announced a few months ago.

The four banks are MBNA, a Bank of America company in the UK, Corner Bank in Switzerland, Cal in Israel and IW Bank in Italy. Developed in conjunction with Emue Technologies, a provider of authentication services designed to mitigate the risk of identity theft, the card has a numeric keypad on the back which can be used for online purchases. When entering the PIN, cardholders gain access to a one-time-use code. The latter enables banks to authenticate consumers via an alpha-numeric display and the12-button keypad incorporated into a conventional credit, debit or prepaid card. Payment is authenticated when customers enter this code on a merchant's website.
When the customers use the card with Verified by Visa password-protected identity-checking service, they do not need to register or remember usernames and passwords. They only have to enter their PIN into the card which creates a unique code for a specific purchase or transaction.