Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Contactless payments on the rise in Taiwan

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Taiwan will be seeing a boost in contactless payments thanks to new capabilities added to the country’s popular EasyCards, according to squidcard.com

Beginning in April, customers will be able to use EasyCards, which have been used in Taiwan for transit since 2002, at various retailers for small purchases of goods and services.


Participating retailers currently include Taiwain’s four primary supermarket companies and international food chains such as Starbucks and Pizza Hut.

According to Lien Sheng-Wen, chairman of EasyCard, there are currently between 12 million and 13 million of the cards in circulation, all of which will become payment ready next month.

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Acer is planning to launch NFC-enabled smart phones for mobile banking and contactless payments, according to Taiwan News.

Acer product manager Vincent Chen told TN that the new phones will likely run on Windows 8, which is expected to support NFC technology. According to Chen, the roll out will depend on how quickly the five major mobile operators in Taiwan can agree upon a contactless mobile payments platform.

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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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Proxama has announced a partnership with semiconductor supplier ARM Holdings to create secure payment mechanisms for mobile handsets.

The UK-based partners say they will combine ARM’s TrustZone technology with Proxama’s Mobile Wallet to develop a “highly secure” environment for NFC-enabled mobile contactless payments and mobile internet 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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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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Datacard Group, a provider of secure ID and card personalization solutions, has announced an equity investment and strategic partnership with DeviceFidelity, makers of the In2Pay mobile payments solution.

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