After a year of development, Visa and Standard Chartered Bank last week announced the first 'smart' credit card which allows users to shop and pay on the Internet.
Their chip-based JavaCard will let Singaporean card-holders access Standard Chartered's Internet shopping mall via interactive kiosks throughout the city, and make purchases by inserting the card in a card-reader.
These information kiosks were connected via the SingaporeONE broadband network and already were widespread at bus stops and shopping malls, Standard Chartered's head of chip and debit-card services Nicholas Fung said.
Standard Chartered plans to launch JavaCard in Singapore in the third quarter.
Card-holders who want to pay for goods from their home PCs need to buy a card-reader, though Mr Fung believes these will become a standard feature of future computer keyboards.
JavaCard also stores bonus points earned by shopping at certain retailers, and allows cash withdrawals from automated teller machines through its magnetic stripe. It will be timely and costly for banks to upgrade infrastructure to support chip-based cards.
MasterCard, which is developing the competing Multos card, has said it delayed introducing its card because member banks were slow to upgrade equipment.