Carte Bleue

Unlike Visa Electron or Maestro debit cards, Carte Bleue transactions worked without requiring authorization from the cardholder's bank.

The system has now been integrated into a wider scheme called CB or carte bancaire ("banking card").

Foreign cards without microchips can still be used at French merchants if they accept them, with the usual procedure of swiping the magnetic stripe and signing the receipt.

In 2000, Serge Humpich, after failing to convince the makers of a serious flaw he had found two years before, purchased some metro tickets to prove it.

[3][4][5] In 2003, the Cartes Bleues / CB started to move on to the international standard EMV for smart chips, allowing for their use abroad.