Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Gemalto providing contactless EMV cards in Italy

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Gemalto announced it is providing Setefi (Intesa Sanpaolo), with its Optelio solution for the first rollout of EMV PayPass contactless payment cards in Italy.

Intesa Sanpaolo offers its services to more than 11 million customers. Gemalto supplied technical support during the launching phase and assisted the bank in upgrading its personalization infrastructure.


The project, developed in collaboration with MasterCard, will be first deployed in the Milan area and Intesa Sanpaolo plans to extend it nationwide while upgrading the point of sale terminal base. 
The Gemalto technology provides Intesa Sanpaolo customers with a convenient and innovative means of payment, as they simply tap their card on a reader for purchases of up to 25 euros.

Eleven brands of relevance with a presence in Italy’s major cities, spanning from fast food restaurants and supermarkets, to sports and home improvement stores, will provide acceptance points. Hundreds of smaller merchants are also expected to join in the program as it unfolds. Intesa Sanpaolo is the first Italian financial institution to rollout contactless payment cards. [end] 

Gemalto has announced that its “Allynis” Trusted Service Manager (TSM) solution has been selected to securely manage transactions on the Isis mobile commerce platform.

Isis, the mobile commerce joint venture between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, will enable U.S. customers to pay, present loyalty cards, and redeem coupons all with a tap of their NFC-enabled phones. According to Sébastien Cano, seniro vice president at Gemalto North America, the TSM solution will enable Isis to securely deliver mobile payments along with a host of NFC services, including access control and mass transit in addition to couponing and loyalty.

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Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest financial institution, has begun a commercial trial of SIM-based NFC mobile payments, reports NFC World.

The service, dubbed “Move and Pay,” is being tested among 600 Intesa Sanpaolo employees and customers in Milan and Turin, as well as by two academic institutions: The Polytechnic Institute of Milan and Turin ISMB.

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Credit Agricole, a retail banking group based in Paris, is teaming up with Gemalto to launch a large-scale deployment of contactless EMV banking cards in France.

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Research and Markets announced the addition of Polasik Research’s contactless payment cards market report, “The Global Contactless Payment Cards Market”, to its offering.

The report describes the evolution contactless payment methods used at point-of-sale, with reference to the solutions offered under the American Express/MasterCard/Visa Agreement. The report also examines the prospects for the development of contactless payments all over the world, including the potential to develop into NFC-based mobile payments.

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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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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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