This is due to the fact that more and more banks have started issuing debit cards to the entire customer base as a standard account (in the same way as a cheque books), rather than to selected customers, as with credit cards.

Because debit cards such as Visa Electron and Visa Debit can be used at both ATMs and point-of-sale, in many cases they have become the primary connection between a bank and a customer.

Worldwide, the people who qualify for a debit card (people with a bank account) outnumber people who qualify for a credit card: approximately five to one. Therefore, the growth of debit cards has given a much wider segment of the global population access to fast, efficient and secure payment products.

In addition, many existing credit cardholders, are turning to debit for lower-value transactions, or transactions where they would normally use cash instead of their credit card.

This has contributed to the fact that, worldwide, debit is growing at approximately three times the rate of credit cards, and should exceed total credit card usage sometime in the first decade of the new millennium.

Penetration of the non-traditional merchant segment has become a key strategy in maintaining momentum in credit and debit card growth. Although, outlets such as hotels, restaurants and department stores often process more transactions using payment cards than any other payment method, other sectors such as tele-communications, insurance, healthcare and supermarkets remain under-penetrated.

The world over payment associations such as Visa are closely working with member banks, merchants and industry groups to further the acceptance of payment cards in these areas, and provide cardholders with an even greater level of choice.

The development of multi-application relationship--a single card which combines credit, debit, stored-value and a number of other applications tailored to suit the needs of the cardholder--remains the ultimate goal of payment associations and payment card-issuers.

Although introduction of such a card is some years away, considerable progress has already been made in smart-card development: key milestones include the launch of stored-value programmes such as Visa Cash and sophisticated products such as Visa Open Platform Card, based on Java (which can incorporate several different applications from different industry sectors.