Bonn -
Nothing was longer: countless clients of Postbank and Commerzbank were not on the weekend at their money - just because of a security chip.
Some debit and credit cards, equipped with a so-called EMV chip, have been rejected by vending machines. Spokesman confirmed the mishap.
The cause of failure is now being reviewed. "The cards are in use for some time, problems were not discovered until the year. So we are moving on from a programming error on the security chip," said a spokeswoman for Commerzbank.
Was excluded so far that there was any wrongful within the machine. The Institute worked with the manufacturer of the chips and other banks on the problem.
It is unclear how many people are affected and whether just may have also customers of other financial institutions problems with their cards. Whether the affected cards of a particular chip-series need to be replaced was not yet secure. Perhaps the software could be error-corrected centrally.
The so-called EMV technology to protect the cards actually against illegal copying and the stored data from tampering. By the end of 2010, all bank cards will be converted to this technology.
