MADRID, Spain, March 25, 1999 -- Queuing to buy bus or metro tickets could soon be a thing of the past for commuters in Spain, thanks to a new smart bank card developed by Schlumberger for Visa Espaņa. This revolutionary card is the first to combine the speed and ease of 'walk-by' contactless operation and the convenience and security of a VisaCash e-purse, all in the form of the familiar bank payment card.
Using the new card, consumers will be able to pay for their tickets with their VisaCash e- purse - simply by walking through the ticket barrier. The fare will be taken from the e-purse on the card, automatically, via wireless communications. A consortium of transport operators and Spanish banks will be the first to explore the potential of the card, with trials planned for later this year in Madrid and Barcelona.
"Smart cards are all about making people's lives simpler," says Schlumberger Bank & Retail Sales Manager, Jerome Traisnel. "It is much easier and quicker to walk by a barrier than to queue for a ticket, or to put the card in a machine. And the fact that payment is taken straight from the e-purse also makes consumers' lives simpler, and their budgets easier to manage."
To make life even easier, the new 'wireless VisaCash' features are incorporated on the familiar Visa Electron magnetic stripe payment card, so consumers need carry only one card for a range of payment choices. This is believed to be the first time contact and contactless operation have been provided on a banking card, and marks a major breakthrough in smart card technology by Schlumberger.
"This was a very challenging project for us," adds Jerome Traisnel. "The card looks and functions just like a conventional Visa Electron debit card, but it also contains a computer chip and a tiny radio antenna capable of performing paperless payment transactions within a 20 cm range."
Over five million Spanish VisaCash users already enjoy the freedom from pockets and purses full of small change (which never seems to include the right denomination for the parking meter!) and the additional security that electronic cash provides. Instead of drawing money from a bank terminal, consumers load their card with e-cash; when they make a purchase, the cost is deducted from the stored balance on the card and transferred to the merchant. The addition of contactless operation adds a whole new dimension to this ease of use and consumer convenience, because the card doesn't even have to be inserted in a terminal, and walk-by ticketing is only the first of many potential uses for the new cards.
Schlumberger is the world's leading supplier of financial cards of all types, and no one has a better understanding of the need for absolute security in all card-based transactions. The new cards have advanced built-in encryption features to safeguard against fraud, in both contact and contactless transactions.
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