GTBank commenced the issuance and acquiring of MasterCard’s EMV compliant payment cards on the Interswitch  transaction switching platform.
The EMV cards introduced by GT Bank includes four MasterCard variants; MasterCard Naira Debit, Dollar Debit, Credit  and Prepaid Card. GT Bank is the first bank to issue dual currency EMV card with four variants on the MasterCard  platform in Nigeria.

GT Bank has since commenced the migration of all its existing customers on the magnetic stripe platform to the  MasterCard platform. It would be recalled that in September 2008, Interswitch was licensed as a MasterCard Third  Party Processor (TTP), and has since achieved full MasterCard, EMV certification of its network for issuing and  acquiring local and international transactions. With this development, Interswitch now processes two EMV card  initiatives, namely, Verve Card and MasterCard.

Gemalto, the leading manufacturer of EMV cards worldwide and the manufacturer of the Verve Chip and PIN card,  manufactures the EMV MasterCard variants. Bothccards have all the EMV features that guarantee the detect fraudulent  cards.

To support Verve and MasterCard, InterSwitch has also deployed the Enterprise Monitoring Solution (EMS), this a  highly intelligent and used by MasterCard in its global fraud detection and prevention strategies.  On this  development, GTBank Assistance General Manager, e-Business, Mrs. Ronke Kuye said, “We chose Interswitch as our Third  Party Processor because of the excellent work the company has been doing, the professionalism of the team and the  expertise that they have shown since inception. With InterSwitch, we are guaranteed that we will be successful both  with the technology and the business.”

Interswitch’s Chief Technology and Operations Officer, Mr. Akeem Lawal explained that his company’s relationship  with MasterCard and GTB is a strategic one that allows Interswitch to continue to remain at the forefront of payment  systems technology and innovation.