Citibank and Octopus Cards Limited plan to launch a new co-branded card, the Octopus Citibank Credit Card, the first in the market to have Octopus functionality. The new card will include not only credit and contactless smart card payment functions, but also will offer Citibank’s cash back in addition to the existing Octopus Rewards scheme. 

A Dutch court has rejected a request from NXP to prevent the publication of a scientific study of the security of the firm’s MIFARE Classic technology. The requested restraining order was against researchers with the University of Nijmegen, whose research into the cryptography of the Mifare Classic questions the chip’s security.

The court ruled that freedom of speech outweighs NXP’s commercial interests. The judge argued that freedom of speech applies to scientific research as well as individuals. 

Banks, mobile operators merchants, handset manufacturers and others will have to work together if near field communication will be adopted, according to a research report from the Smart Card Alliance Contactless Payments Council. Eighty-six percent of industry stakeholders believe NFC-based proximity payments will be adopted, and it will happen with a collaboration model bringing the relevant parties together.

But what’s needed to move activities forward are trusted service managers to coordinate the activities of those involved, the report states. There are many issues that still need to be worked out, including final selection of handset and chip standards, merchant enablement, standards for certifying and deploying secure payment applications, and, lastly and most important, development of a model for revenue-sharing arrangements among stakeholders. 

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University announced that students, faculty, and staff will receive new identification cards based on contactless smart card technology when they return to campus this fall.

The motivation to replace the 15-year-old swipe-style student ID cards occurred last year after a student was caught duplicating the ID cards of the university’s president and an assistant dean among others. The student was able to access buildings and gates across campus with only knowledge of the ID numbers then used on the cards and a $200 card reader he bought from eBay. The new cards are intended to bolster the security of buildings by adding encryption technology and more complex security procedures.

Read more here.  

New gates to prevent fare evasion and upgrading ticket vending machines to distribute limited-use paper smart cards are two primary goals of $68 million in contacts awarded to Cubic Transportation Systems by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The first contract, a $46 million lease agreement, is for Cubic to install more than 420 fare gates as well as upgrade the ticket vending machines to distribute the limited use cards to all subway and selected light rail stations. The contracts complement Cubic’s current contract with Metro as its automated Universal Fare System (UFS) operated on TAP is being introduced in a phased rollout across the agency’s bus and rail networks and 10 other regional bus operators. When completed in 2009 it will be California’s largest 100% smart ticketing system for transit. 

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is issuing its customers with the country’s first ever Visa EMV payment card enabling both contactless and contact-based payment. The Chinese subsidiary of the German technology enterprise Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has been selected to supply the cards to ICBC.

Cardholders can pay for purchases by either swiping the Visa payWave card across a contactless point-of-sales terminal or inserting it into the slot of a card reader. The dual interface cards are being issued in partnership with the Asian retail group Parkson in China, whose customers can also use them to collect loyalty points. ICBC and Parkson are planning to issue the Peony Parkson credit card to bank and retail customers this year. 

BQT Solutions Limited has been awarded a contract to supply at least 1,140 smart card readers to a major American airport. The terms of the deal and the identity of the airport were not released.

The PIN plus smart cart style MIFARE readers comply with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s Transportation Worker Identification Credential program. The company already received orders for the first 600 readers, and expects to have fulfilled the entire contract by October 2008.