Switch is a debit card

Debit card

A debit card is a plastic card that provides the cardholder electronic access to his or her bank account/s at a financial institution...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It is a sister to the Solo

Solo (debit card)

Solo is a debit card in the United Kingdom. It is a sister to the UK Maestro debit card. Solo was launched on 1 July 1997 by the Switch Card Scheme for use on deposit accounts, as well as by customers who did not qualify for a Maestro card on current accounts.Solo was formerly issued as a...

 debit card.

Switch was launched in 1988 by Midland Bank

Midland Bank

Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836...

, National Westminster Bank

National Westminster Bank

National Westminster Bank Plc, commonly known as NatWest, is the largest retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom and has been part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc since 2000. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is ranked as the second largest bank in the world by assets...

 and the Royal Bank of Scotland

Royal Bank of Scotland

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...

 as a multifunction cheque guarantee

Cheque guarantee card

A cheque guarantee card is essentially an abbreviated portable letter of credit granted by a bank to a qualified depositor, providing that when he is paying a business by cheque and the retailer writes the card number on the back of the cheque, the cheque is signed in the retailer's presence, and...

 and cash card

Automated teller machine

An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...

. The brand was merged with Maestro

Maestro (debit card)

Maestro is a multi-national debit card service owned by MasterCard, and was founded in 1990. Maestro cards are obtained from associate banks and can be linked to the card holder's current account, or they can be prepaid cards...

, an international debit card brand owned by MasterCard

MasterCard

Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...

, in 2002. This merger has been referred to as the "penguin wedding," with distinctive advertisements of penguins in different international settings created by Joel Veitch

Joel Veitch

Joel Veitch is a British web animator, singer-songwriter, and member of the humour website B3ta. Veitch is owner of the web site RatherGood where he showcases many of his animations. Joel has also created the Mr...

. Since then, banks have been migrating customers from Switch to Maestro

Maestro (debit card)

Maestro is a multi-national debit card service owned by MasterCard, and was founded in 1990. Maestro cards are obtained from associate banks and can be linked to the card holder's current account, or they can be prepaid cards...

.

The merger was also intended to increase the acceptance of foreign Maestro cards in the UK. However, despite the Maestro brand name, point of sale transactions in the UK are still processed by Switch Card Services Limited. Consequently many retailers who advertise that they accept Maestro can only accept UK-issued cards, i.e. former Switch cards. Although the brand-name and company is now Maestro, the old Switch logo and Switch cards are still accepted in many good retailers. Still, this situation can cause some confusion for visitors to the UK who may have their Maestro cards declined at the point of sale.

Switch/Maestro cards issued by certain banks, notably the HSBC

HSBC

HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. it is the world's second-largest banking and financial services group and second-largest public company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine...

 group (which has now replaced Switch with Visa Debit), carried an issue number on the bottom of the card corresponding to the number of times a card had been issued on a particular account. This was usually because the current account number the card is linked to actually formed a large part of the card number, and therefore the card number could not be readily changed in case of loss or the card expiring.

Despite not being used as a brand for a number of years, the term "Switch" is sometimes used on e-commerce sites (or by members of staff and older customers of banks that formerly offered Switch cards) to refer to Maestro cards or as a generic name for debit cards, much to the confusion of younger members of the public and customers of the many banks that never issued Switch cards.