Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Industry predicts European contactless payment surge in 2009

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Visa and MasterCard are making massive investments in contactless payments in the European theater which, according to one Visa spokesperson, could mean “the year of contactless payments.” Visa alone is investing nearly $13 million to help retailers adopt to the new technology. Such cash infusions could also jump start payments via NFC-compliant cell phones.

MasterCard said it had already included contactless technology in almost 45 million cards distributed across the world. Plus, the credit card giant earlier this week announced its deal with French retailer Carrefour, which will begin accepting the contactless PayPass MasterCards.

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Superdrug, one of Britain’s largest beauty and health retailers, has introduced contactless payment for its in-store customers, according to Retail Gazette.

Created by Streamline and Visa Europe, the contactless system will enable customers to make payments of up to £15 (approx. USD $23) by simply waving their contactless bank card at the more than 50 participating Superdrug stores in London and Liverpool.

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Identive Group Inc. has announced a deal to acquire a majority stake in Hamburg, Germany-based payment solution AG, a cashless payment system provider for stadiums, arenas and other types of entertainment venues.

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The European Association for Biometrics (EAB) is focusing on a goal of driving the research and development of biometrics and building the future of the industry around a concern for end-user privacy protection.

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The European Payments Council (EPC) has published the second edition of its “White Paper on Mobile Payments.”

According to EPC, the white paper focuses on the usage of the mobile payments in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and explores how m-payment services can be delivered through cooperation between service providers in the payment industry and players within the mobile ecosystem.

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The UK’s YESpay International and YES-wallet.com have teamed up to build an NFC-enabled cloud-based mobile payments platform.

By integrating the YES-wallet Pouch digital wallet with YESpay EMBOSS payment service, the companies will provide a platform that encompasses e-Money, pre-paid and gift-card payments based on Visa PayWave and MasterCard PayPass contactless standards.

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In Europe, the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) and EPASOrg has developed a new global standard to help accommodate changes in new payment technologies, according to SupermarketNews.com

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