This innovative offering will secure the following in one go: merchant outlets will have to install EDC terminal or they are out of the Citibank-MasterCard loop and credit-card holders need no more worry of overspending in a non-EDC outlet.

"We found in our customer research conducted along with MasterCard that customers fear over-spending in a non-EDC outlet", Citibank's business manager (cards), MN Murali said. "That painstaking process of an non-EDC outlet calling up the bank for credit authorisation is now a thing of the past" he added. Non-EDC outlets have preset credit limitsfixed by banks on credit-card spends. Further, there is no real-time link with the card issuing bank to verify credit limits.

"The intoduction of the `Citibank MasterCard Electronic Credit Card' will further solidify our leadership position in India, a very important market MasterCard", said MasterCard International senior vice-president and general manager (south-East and south-Asia).

All Citibank cards on the MasterCard network are now to be re-iussed as electronic cards. They will have a non-embossed number; be signature-based with the option of truncated account numbers on the face of the card to help reduce fraud with a specially designed MasterCard logo.

Citibank currently has nearly 20,000 merchant establishments, and along with other banks have nearly have 8,000-8,500 outlets equipped with EDC terminals. "The number of outlets with EDC are growing at the rate of 1,500 to 2,000 every year, and our latest offering will only result in the upgradation of more outlets to EDC status", said Murali,adding: "Moreover, the benifits of our latest move will also accrue to other banks operating on the MasterCard network".