ECB, through its Card division Senator Cards, has partnered with ECS to bring together a higher level of security to its clients and also bring the Bank to the forefront of Card technology by being one of the first banks in Kenya to provide Branded EMV. “This is in line with the Banks overall strategy to leverage on technology and increase customer satisfaction,” says Mr. Mubarak Mamdani, Head Card Business.

On the occasion, the ECS General Manager, Moushumi Jani, added: “ECB has a strong and vibrant strategy for the payment systems space in Kenya and abroad. We take pride in the fact that ECB chose ECS to partner with, and make us a significant player in their strategy. We look forward to working with ECB and helping them achieve their goals.”

About Equatorial Commercial Bank Ltd:
Established as a Finance Company in 1983, Equatorial Commercial Bank Limited (ECB) commenced operations as a fully-fledged commercial bank in 1995.

In June 2010 Equatorial Commercial Bank merged with Southern Credit Banking Corporation, creating a new enlarged bank under the Equatorial Commercial Bank brand. The merger has given ECB critical mass to further develop & grow in a dynamic & competitive market place.

With a diverse client base, ECB provides a comprehensive package of financial services and products, tailored to suit our clients’ requirements, while keeping our procedures simple and rates competitive.

About eCard Solutions Ltd:
eCard Solutions Ltd is a Third Party Payment Processor providing a broad range of secure payment solutions. ECS provides an Ecosystem to banks and businesses that facilitates transaction acceptance over multiple channels. ECS aims to provide its customers with a state-of-the-art payment Ecosystem that helps create profitable and sustainable business models while doing this at a low cost of investment.

The ECS Ecosystem has been processing domestic and international payment transactions over various channels since 2003. Today, ECS processes millions of transactions per year with customers in multiple regions. Banks and businesses rely on the ECS Ecosystem for their daily electronic transaction processing needs.

The announcement hails ECS’s second customer signup in the country in a year. The project, which is set to go live in the first quarter of 2013, will allow Fina Bank to acquire the MasterCard brand on it’s network of ATM’s. The partnership will also avail the MasterCard brand to Fina Bank’s many account and cardholders significantly improving services and expanding the bank’s product portfolio.

Aligning with its vision, the engagement is a further testament to ECS’s commitment in the region. ECS currently processes for banks in The United Republic of Tanzania, The Union of Comoros, Djibouti and Rwanda bringing the total number of countries it processes in to 4.

About Fina Bank Rwanda Ltd: Being in three territories and with over 30 branches in the region, Fina Bank is one of the best positioned banks in the region. As the preferred Regional Business Bank, the Bank’s vision is to facilitate growth and prosperity for people across East Africa.

It was a humbling experience for the entire team that got to understand what the home does, how it cares and to spend time with the numerous children at the home. The team were given the opportunity to mingle with the children and share some playtime as well. The home currently cares for around fifty children varying from one day old infants to children in secondary schools, and forty two old and disabled people who have been abandoned. The home cares for all these people through charitable donations.

The ECS team took the opportunity to donate to the home during this visit as well. The donations ranged from milk, diapers, antiseptic solutions, clothes and toys for the kids, foods & drinks for all, a wheelchair for the sick, a medical bed and other similar items of assistance to the home.

So fulfilling was the experience that the ECS team now plans on making this a regular activity to help the home.

For those wishing to help, in cash, kind or any other means, you may contact the home directly. Please contact Sister Prudencia on telephone +255 73 2927110.

The on-site audit was conducted by Ambsersail Ltd, a QSA company, during the month of April 2012. The final Report on Compliance (ROC) and Attestation of Compliance (AOC) have already been issued by the QSA completing the audit cycle for 2011-2012.

eCard Solutions Ltd remains one of the handful third party payment processors in Africa that has achieved and maintained compliance to the stringent PCI DSS requirements. A testament to the security processes at ECS, this years audit was completed in record time without any remediation requirements.

Having already been listed on the Visa Registry of Compliant Service Providers and MasterCard’s Registry of Compliant Service Providers for the year 2011, we are proud to be listed for another year.

The Vx 670 is the world’s smallest all-in-one wireless handheld payment device. Built with Purpose-inspired design–with the end user in mind–the Vx 670 is a radical revolution at hand.

The PCI PED approved Vx 670 is a small, sleek, and secure handheld payment device designed specifically for wireless, customer-facing payment. VeriFone’s patent-pending MAXui design provides the largest user interface in the smallest form factor with a large, white backlit display and large blue backlit keys. In addition, its purpose inspired design–focused on real world usage–is rugged, drop-resistant, and spill-resistant to hold up to the most demanding conditions.

For more information and collateral download please visit the VeriFone Vx670 Page on the Verifone Website.

The event was well received by the banks attending the training which included some of the largest acquiring and issuing banks in Tanzania and Kenya. The event brought to light the essentials and complexities of PCI DSS and the challenges that lie ahead for banks in the region. The two day training was conducted by Jake Eliasz, a PCI Qualified Security Assessor from Ambersail Assured, assisted by the ECS team.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards represent a common set of industry tools and measurements to ensure the safe handling of cardholder data. Initially created by Visa and MasterCard, the standard provides an actionable framework for developing an account data security process including prevention, detection and reaction to security incidents.

ECS is proud to be hosting this training programme in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between the 2nd and 3rd of May 2012. For more details navigate your browser to http://www.ecardsolutions.com/pcidsstraining/

The announcement and contract signing was completed Thursday 15th March 2012 and the project is set to go Live within the second quarter of 2012. ECS will be providing a complete turnkey Issuance as well as an Acquiring Platform for SP’s Fuel & Fleet Card Solution in Rwanda. The first phase of the project is set to roll out to 10 Fuel Stations within Kigali by the end of the second quarter 2012, with complete coverage by the third quarter.

The General Manager of ECS, Moushumi Jani, took the opportunity to congratulate SP on this key milestone. “ECS is proud to be the chosen partner for SP in Rwanda and is eager to get the solution live for SP as quickly as possible. Our product and services provide rapid benefit realization and it is our belief that SP will standout in Rwanda with our solution. We congratulate SP on this key milestone and look forward to serving SP and the people of Rwanda.”

About SP Rwanda: Societe Petroliere one of the Top 3 fuel companies in Rwanda and a market leader in innovation. SP is committed to provide the best of services in Rwanda in the retail, wholesale and aviation segments. With a current base of over 20 wholly owned Fuel Stations, SP is well placed in the market and plans on extending its services to 10 more stations by 2013.

With operations in most parts of the country, SP engages in most aspects of the petroleum industry, including providing Petrol and Diesel stations, Cooking Gas, Aviation Fuel, Transportation Services of Petroleum Products, Construction Services for Fuel Stations as well as providing Car Lubricants

The annual event is organized by AITEC Africa and took place between the 7th and 8th of March 2012 as always at the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya. The event brought together all the who’s who of the Banking and Payment Sector providing great opportunity for networking and knowledge sharing.

More about AITEC Africa: Aitec Africa’s core business since 1987 has been focussed on ICT publishing, event management, professional development and training in Africa. It has been a market-leading pioneer in terms of spreading knowledge on the Internet, computing and telecommunications across most of English-speaking Africa.

A customer created solution that seems to be gathering pace of late is the adoption of lower value “online-only” Prepaid Cards. Customer reload their Prepaid Cards with just enough funds to use online without exposing a lot of their wealth to unscrupulous people who are ready to exploit. While this movement is gaining momentum it does not fully address the risks a normal Signature based or PIN based card presents.

The challenge has always been this: How do you authenticate a Cardholders Online ecommerce transaction? The traditional PIN that Cardholders are used to entering at the ATM unfortunately cannot be used online. The traditional PIN relies on a closed loop cryptography that requires a set of secure keys that be installed at both the sending and the receiving end, a challenge when you consider the fact that every internet enabled device in the world can become an ecommerce terminal for a transaction. Apart from this, the Expiry Date and CVV2/CVC2 controls really do not provide much of a challenge for the experienced fraudster who could have so easily taken a picture of your card or memorized the digits upon glance.

Fortunately, and surprisingly, the solution to protecting your transaction online in a globally acceptable and secure way has been around since 2001, it is called 3-D Secure. 3-D Secure is an additional layer of authentication for all ecommerce transactions. At the heart of it, 3-D Secure is an XML based protocol developed by Visa Inc that brings together 3 transactional domains for the purpose of authenticating a transaction: The Issuer (Your Bank where you got your card), The Acquirer (The Bank that has issued the terminal where you are transacting) and the Interoperability domain (Your interchanges and brands such as Visa Inc, MasterCard WorldWide etc.). Visa Inc was the first organization to go live with the 3-D Secure model with their Verified by Visa service, often abbreviated as VbV. MasterCard soon followed with their own implementation of it tagged SecureCode.

So how does it all work? To have a transaction occur in a 3-D Secure environment you need all 3 Domains to be participating in the programme. You must have a brand that supports 3-D Secure based services (such as Visa or MasterCard), you also need an ecommerce merchant (a website) that participates in the programme and can accept 3-D Secure transactions plus you need a cardholder whose bank supports the programme and he or she has also enrolled in this programme. Should the merchant, or the cardholder, not be a participant then the transaction would go the route of a normal “any other” transaction.

How does the experience change for the Cardholder? For a cardholder, the first part of 3-D Secure involves an “Enrolment” process. Once your bank starts providing these services you there might be a mandatory or optional enrolment that is processed online. Generally this involves a secure page that the customer must visit, enter a few essential details together with the card details and enrol themselves. It is at this point that the cardholder will create a secret token, in most cases a password, that he will use online on 3-D Secure enabled ecommerce website. Some banks prefer the Activation During Shopping (ADC) option. When the customer visits a 3-D Secure enabled website and wants to make a payment there he or she will be redirected to the banks website where they can enrol, create the secure token and continue shopping once done. The token management is left to the banks who decide on how long a token might be valid for. For example, some banks have a one-time token that doesn’t change unless the cardholder requests, others enforce a token change every set number of days or months (added security) while others create a one-time token that only lasts a couple of minutes sent securely to the cardholder for use during that short transaction period (maximum security, be it a little cumbersome).

So what does this all mean? The bottom line is: if you want your card transaction to be secured, to be protected against fraud and drastically decrease your risk and liability then 3-D Secure is for you. When shopping around for cards out there in the market from all the banks that are so eager to sell to you – be mindful. Evaluate the product well and ensure the bank is providing you the 3-D Secure difference. If your existing bank does not offer 3-D Secure yet, you’d better start knocking on their doors and waking them up. Do not wait for the liability and fraud to come to you – prepare yourself, secure yourself.