The Spanish resort city of Sitges is participating in Europe’s largest mobile wallet trial, with 1,500 residents using their mobile phones to pay for everyday purchases, according to ZDnet. To complete a transaction, participants simply pass their NFC-enabled Samsung Touch Star phones over a contactless reader at the point of sale, and the amount is […]

Blackboard’s new contactless cards deployed at Santa Clara University helped the university meet several needs, according to Jeff Staples, vice president of market development and strategy at the campus card provider. The university wanted to increase awareness of specials in their dining program so the school put up digital signage at the card office advertising […]

Agency wants EMV-compliant prepaid solution The U.S. Department of Defense is requesting information on adding payment capabilities to the Common Access Card, according to documents released by the agency. The idea of adding an electronic purse and transit application to the CAC was brought up at the Smart Card Alliance Conference. The agency is seeking […]

National Express Dundee is launching Scotland’s first ever smart card-based pay-as-you-go service for bus travel. The new service, supported by sQuid, will work with Scotland’s National Entitlement Card (NEC), allowing customers to pay for bus fare quickly and easily with a tap of a smart card. sQuid is providing the eMoney service for NEC smart […]

Hong Kong’s Advanced Card Systems (ACS) has announced the successful deployments of its ACOS6 Multi-application & Purse (MAP) Card and ACOS7 Dual Interface Smart Card. According to ACS, the ACOS6 was deployed for two major projects in Eastern Europe – an e-purse card system for factories and an e-ID system for universities. More than 100,000 […]

The city of Cardiff, Wales is planning to launch its own version of London’s Oyster transit card next month, allowing bus passengers to pay for fares with a swipe of a contactless card, according to Wales Online. The new cards will feature a re-loadable electronic purse that can be used to store bus tickets, including […]

Tyfone announced that it was given an award for “Widest Handset Coverage and Contactless Compliance” at the Asia Pacific Smart Card Alliance’s APSCA first forum on alternative NFC mobile payment solutions, recently held in Taiwan. Tyfone won for its SideTap memory card technology, a fully integrated NFC contactless payment solution contained within a MicroSD memory […]

Dubai’s Simage Technologies has announced the launch of a new converged platform for ID, mobile payments and contact/contactless payments across multiple sectors, including financial services, the public sector and transport. According to Simage, the platform supports multi-factor authentication and biometrics in end-user and transaction verification, allowing for a wide array of ID based applications and […]

A number of Indian banks are reportedly looking to update their payment cards with contactless technology, according to squidcard.com. HDFC Bank, which boasts a nationwide network of 1,725 branches in 780 Indian towns and cities, has already begun issuing payment cards with both smart chip and magnetic stripe technology. Oriental Bank of Commerce and Indian […]

“Colleges and universities are leading the way with multiple-use contactless ID cards that contain several applications, and the broader community could learn a lot from them,” said Jim Ellis, director of Contactless Payments at HID Global. Higher education institutions utilize contactless technology to perform multiple functions for students, faculty and staff including: physical access to […]