In addition, BC Card plans to unveil a “talking card,” a credit card embedded with a chip capable of making sound, within the first quarter of the year. A talking card with the ability to confirm transaction details when swiped has never been available in Korea.

A talking card with an electronic sound has already been put into the test stage. In the future, according to a BC Card official, a talking card with a human sounding voice will be produced through a tiny micro-speaker in the card.

These initiatives to apply new technologies to the credit card are not the first. BC Card has already issued a self-illuminating card, the “Woori V-Point Card,” for Woori Bank. The Selight (short for “self-lighting”) Card uses an LED (light-emitting diode) to illuminate itself when swiped in a terminal.

BC Card is seeking to develop other new cards that are appealing to the cardholder’s five senses, including touch and taste in addition to the olfactory, auditory, and visual senses.

Kim Tae-Jin, the Director of the Payment Settlement Research Center, said, “Today the credit card is evolving into something you should be able to feel with all your sensory organs, in addition to its simple design dimensions. Our BC Sense initiative has begun with the notion that we should give our customers sensory pleasure whenever we can.”

BC Card is Korea’s first credit card company to establish a corporate payment settlement research unit. It aims to lead the industry with brand-new business models and technologies developed within the research center.