Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

National Australia Bank distributes contactless cards, readers

Monday, November 30, 2009

National Australia Bank (NAB) has begun issuing Visa cards equipped with contactless Visa payWave technology, according to zdnet.com. To support the new cards, NAB has also announced 2,500 contactless card readers will be delivered to merchants in Sydney and Melbourne.

The new cards will allow customers to pay for purchases less than $100 by simply hold their cards near a reader–no PIN numbers or signatures required.

According to a spokesperson for NAB, customers can request the new cards, or wait until they are automatically issued one.


NAB’s contactless initiative comes on the heels of Austrailia’s Commonwealth Bank, which has issued over three million contactless MasterCards and hopes to distribute 2000 readers by the end of the year.

So far NAB has kept quiet about the scope of its card distribution plans.

Read more here [end] 

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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A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

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German bank, Sparkasse will pilot contactless payments for its bank credit card users, reports Venture Village.

Locations in Hannover, Braunschweig and Wolfsburg will be some of the first for the trial, which begins in April. More than 1.3 million customers will receive the new bank cards complete with contactless functionality.

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MasterCard Australia has announced that more than 1 million contactless PayPass transactions were recorded during the month of August.

According to Insider Retailing, this marks the first time that PayPass “Tap and Go” payments have surpassed the 1 million transaction milestone since the technology was introduced in Australia several years ago, indicating growing acceptance of contactless payments.

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Blackpool, a seaside town situated along England’s west coast, has installed a number of Parkeon contactless-enabled parking pay stations.

For the installation, Blackpool Council opted for the Parkeon Strada pay station terminal. This new, solar-powered terminal is equipped with contactless card readers, accepting contactless payment-enabled mobile phones and various wave and pay bank cards.

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Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has officially launched its Kaching mobile payments app for the iPhone, reports ZD Net.

Kaching enables Commbank customers to make contactless payments powered by MasterCard PayPass, as well as transfer funds to friends via Facebook and perform a number of mobile banking tasks.

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