Thursday , March 28, 2024

Smart Cards

Atmel and OTI Announce First Major Order for PayPass Gear

On Track Innovations Ltd. and Atmel Corp. announced today they have received the first order for microprocessors in “commercial quantity” for MasterCard International's PayPass contactless payment program. OTI said it also expects orders for card readers to support rollouts of PayPass cards by issuers later this year. The two companies …

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Behind PassMark’s ‘Keep it Simple’ Plan to Fight Phishing Fraud

Woodside, Calif.-based PassMark Security LLC, which incorporated only in February to attack phishing and other online transaction fraud, says it has attracted interest in its solution from banking and retailer Web sites. The company is now in serious discussions with “eight to ten major sites,” says Bill Harris, chief executive, …

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A BofA Banker Argues Against ACH-Based Debit Programs

With rising transaction costs leading many retailers to look at the automated clearing house as a less expensive form of electronic payment, at least one leading bank executive is publicly throwing cold water on the concept of proprietary retail debit cards based on the ACH. Jonathan Wilk, senior vice president …

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A U.K. Banker’s Warning for His U.S. Brethren: Get with the Chip

Bankers in the U.S. who bemoan the absence of a business case for smart cards may soon find one now that a massive rollout of chip-based credit and debit cards secured with personal identification numbers is well under way in the U.K., a British banker warned today. That's because fraudsters …

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AmEx Will Expand ExpressPay And Promote a New Incentive

American Express Co. this Friday will begin adding more merchants in lower Manhattan in its test of radio-wave technology for payment transactions. Over the next several weeks, three quick-service restaurants near the card company's headquarters will begin accepting the card company's experimental ExpressPay RIFD keyfobs, which communicate with conventional card …

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Advice from an Expert: Don’t Rely on E-Loyalty to Push Technology

Executives who are counting on loyalty applications to help justify new transaction technologies like smart cards and radio-frequency ID devices may have to reconsider their strategies in light of recent developments, according to an expert in electronic loyalty programs. Speaking at Thomson Media's CardTech SecurTech conference and exhibition this week …

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Visa Places Its Bets on Mag-Stripe Cards for Electronic Loyalty

Target Corp.'s decision several weeks ago to discontinue its chip-based electronic loyalty program has confirmed for Visa USA that U.S. consumers are not likely to embrace new transaction technologies any time soon, whether tied to loyalty programs or not. Indeed, for the foreseeable future, the bank card network is shifting …

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McDonald’s’ Exit from Speedpass May Be Only a Hiccup for RFID

Although the decision by fast-food king McDonald's Corp. to shut down its test of ExxonMobil Corp.'s Speedpass contactless payment product seems to be a setback for the technology, not all observers agree. Indeed, some are convinced transactions based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) still have a bright future at high-throughput locations–maybe …

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Scotiabank’s Barrie Smart Card Pilot Readies for Its Next Phase

An ambitious multi-application smart card pilot launched late last year in Barrie, Ontario, is ready to move to its next phase, which will involve signing up 40 more merchant locations in February. Toronto-based Scotiabank, the issuer of the cards, will not release how many it has issued so far, though …

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