MINNEAPOLIS (Aug. 22, 2011) – U.S. Bank, the second-largest corporate travel card issuer in the United States, has announced it will begin issuing commercial cards with EMV chip technology for U.S.-based international corporate travelers. U.S. Bank's international cards will enable users to make card payments via the chip-card readers commonly used overseas or the magnetic stripe readers that still predominate in the United States.

The new commercial card offering follows on the heels of a June 10 announcement that U.S. Bank had become the first issuer of such "dual interface" chip technology to the U.S. consumer market with its FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa(R) card. The addition of commercial cards has been in the planning stages for several months in response to client requests and market research.

"Global card acceptance and compatibility are concerns for customers engaged in extensive international travel, and we're pleased to offer them this solution," said Kurt Adams, executive vice president of U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems. "Both Visa and MasterCard have been engaged with us and support our goal to bring this to the U.S. market as quickly as possible."

U.S. Bank already issues chip-enabled cards to its commercial customers in Canada. In July the bank began issuing commercial cards with full chip-and-PIN capability for corporate clients in Europe.