CB International, a leading global payment brand and the largest card issuer and acquirer in Japan, says it has big plans to grow its smart card business in North America. A new partnership with Vital Processing Services and the recent announcement of a smart card pilot program may have put JCB a few steps closer to achieving its goal.

Tokyo-based JCB International Credit Card Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of JCB International, and Vital Processing Services announced they have joined forces to promote the use of smart cards in the United States.

Vital conducted its first live, end-to-end smart card transaction with JCB on Oct. 29, 2002, which captured the attention of Honolulu-based First Hawaiian Bank, a subsidiary of BancWest Corp. In early 2003, Vital and JCB will partner with First Hawaiian by introducing a smart card pilot program in Hawaii, employing Hypercom Corp.'s ICE 5500 smart card terminals.

JCB certified Hypercom's EMV kernel for ICE card payment terminals to use with JCB's J/Smart credit cards. Hypercom and JCB also have teamed to promote JCB's smart cards and the sale of smart card-enabled payment terminals worldwide.

The companies have several mutual customers and complementary relationships with acquirers and processors around the world.

"We are very much excited about this opportunity to work with Vital, First Hawaiian Bank and Hypercom," said Atsushi Niimura, President of JCB International Credit Card Co., Ltd and also President of JCB International Co., Ltd. in a company press release. "Although the U.S. market is rather slow in its smart card migration, we are proud that we can show our readiness for the chip deployment, and we welcome any opportunity to further increase JCB's presence in the market."

JCB said its number one priority is to establish key partnerships in North America in order to design an infrastructure for accepting JCB smart card transactions.

The company hired smart card guru Julie Krueger, former Executive Director of the Smart Card Alliance, as Vice President Smart Cards for JCB to oversee this task.

JCB has rolled out smart cards in Japan, Taiwan and the U.K. and said it hopes to convert its entire customer base to smart cards by 2007.