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August 2005 • Volume 10 Number 8 |
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Executive Director's Letter Dear members and friends of the Alliance: Since a great deal of my attention, as well the interest of our readers, is on the upcoming conference, let me begin there. The theme for this year's Smart Card Alliance 2005 Fall Annual Conference is "Smart Cards: The User and Issuer Experience." We've added a fourth day to this year's event and expanded our geographic focus to include both North America and Latin America. We are expecting speakers from the banking, public transportation, government ID, healthcare, and mobile telecom markets in Brazil, Mexico, and the Caribbean countries to join speakers from these same segments in the U.S. and Canadian markets to present how smart cards are being issued and used. Our new industry councils for physical access, transportation, healthcare, and contactless payments are already actively engaged in projects and will be contributing to the program. In addition, we will be providing meeting space for these groups to hold face-to-face meetings during the week. We are replacing last year's technology exchange with an international Information Exchange and reception on Thursday. This exchange is open to organizations from all regions that wish to reserve a table during this special one-day event to share information about their company, products and services. Our Latin America Chapter, led by its 10 new Foundation Members, will also be gathering for the first time to discuss the chapter's future activities. Several networking receptions, an awards luncheon, an Educational Institute workshop, and birds-of-a-feather discussion groups are some of the added highlights for this year's conference. Email invitations have been distributed to all Alliance newsletter subscribers and the automated event information and registration system is waiting for you to respond. Visit it NOW and register TODAY! A full agenda will be posted soon. Keep checking back for additional agenda and speaker updates in the coming weeks. If you did not receive an invitation to register for the annual conference, request one at events@smartcardalliance.org.
Contactless payment adoption faces the classic problem that any new payment technology faces. There needs to be a large base of consumers with contactless payment devices to interest merchants to add the capability to their point-of-sale (POS) systems and there needs to be sufficient merchants accepting contactless payment to interest consumers in trying the new technology. The good news is that the pilots are over, contactless payment devices are being issued across the U.S., and merchants are putting in place the infrastructure to accept the new payment devices. This article reviews the status of financial industry-backed contactless payment initiatives in the U.S. and presents some of the key benefits that consumers, merchants and issuers are realizing with the new technology.
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This month Smart Card Talk spoke with Chuck Wilson, Senior Director of Hitachi Smart Solutions division. Chuck has been in the card processing industry for over 20 years, and has been researching and writing about smart cards for the past eight years. Chuck spent 12 years with Electronic Data Systems (EDS) where he was a Payment Services Division vice president directing the global delivery of POS and commercial card processing. Chuck was a senior vice president of CardSystems Solutions Inc. in Addison, Texas where he led the product development of emerging payment products. As the Senior Director of Hitachi Smart Solutions division for the past three years, Chuck establishes and guides systems integration strategies, and directs the project management of each customer initiative.
Paying with a Wave, Tap and 'blink': Contactless Payments in the U.S. 
Executive
Director's Letter
