EMV
The payment cards that are available today are going through some changes. The magnetic stripe on the card's back is being replaced by a chip. The main reasons for this are security and new business possibilities. Today, it is very common that cards have both a magnetic stripe and a chip but in the long run the magnetic stripe will entirely to disappear, which is something that happens over the entire world.
The initiative to these changes has been taken by Europay, MasterCard and Visa. The chip technology is therefore called EMV. A chip functions like a computer and can store larger volumes of information than a magnetic stripe. The chip is placed on the card's front side and when using it, the card is inserted into the terminal, which communicates directly with the card's chip. EMV-terminals are now available on the market. These terminals can read both magnetic stripes and chips.