Problems and Prospects of Multi Application Smart cards in the UK Financial Industry

The research questions that will be answered in this paper are the following: Firstly, whether smart card technology (in the banking sector) can be used, not only for combating fraud, but also in order to achieve a competitive advantage without suffering from traditional IT system drawbacks. Secondly, what are the business and technical issues that will affect such a migration? The methodology involved requires a thorough review of the relevant literature on IT and competitive advantage. Furthermore, it also involves a number of interviews in the UK financial industry (i.e. banks and credit card companies), and the smart card technology providers.