New secure-chip debit card making its appearance in community banks.

• Position: STAR CertiFlash technology - Brief article

A HANDFUL OF BANKS have started offering secure-chip debit cards in the United States. On the West Coast, one of the first community banks to offer the secure-chip is Fremont Bank (assets: $2.4 billion), Fremont, Calif.

Fremont Bank's new debit cards will use STAR CertiFlash, a chip application developed by First Data's STAR Network that uses one-time card number technology to advance security at the point of sale.

Most U.S. banks currently use a magnetic stripe on debit and credit cards to store the cardholder's name, account number and other authenticating information. It is possible for thieves to copy the data off of the magnetic stripe to create fraudulent replica cards.

To counter this type of fraud, the STAR CertiFlash technology eliminates the consumer's card data from the payment transaction. The technology is programmed onto a chip that is embedded within a payment device, such as a debit card. For each transaction, the chip encrypts and transmits a card number that...