Executive Director's Letter

Dear members and friends of the Alliance,

Welcome Smart Card Alliance members and followers of the smart card industry to the first edition of our new Smart Card Talk monthly newsletter format.  We've added new content and will have special features each month. I hope you will find that this improved and expanded version of our newsletter brings you more information about the Alliance and the marketplace. If you are like me, the challenge will be finding the time to read it all.  

We redesigned the graphics and layout, moving from a single page to a multiple page design. New features that have been added are the Member Profile, which will feature a different Alliance member organization each month, and the Feature of the Month, a feature article on an important industry topic.  We will continue to provide the important information on task force activities, member news releases, event calendar, and ISCAN international news, but in more detail than previous issues allowed. Also new is a section called Web Site News, which will highlight new additions to our public and members-only web sites so that you won't miss anything that has been recently added to our site. As always, we welcome your feedback on this new newsletter. You can contact me at info@smartcardalliance.org.

Member Profile
VeriSign Inc. a global leader in internet infrastructure and trust solutions and services, recently joined the Smart Card Alliance as a Leadership Council member.  Smart Card Talk sat down with Nicolas Popp, Vice President, Research and Advanced Products to discuss VeriSign's view of the smart card industry and their new role in the Smart Card Alliance.

1. What is VeriSign's main business profile and company offerings?
VeriSign has three highly synergistic business lines all focused on value added services for security, communications, content and commerce.  As the global leader in Internet infrastructure VeriSign has the unique ability to view and analyze activity on the internet helping our customers move swiftly when significant events occur. This same infrastructure allows VeriSign to provide the world's most scaleable and secure service for internet Trust. Unmatched operational excellence means that VeriSign can provide business critical services for Large Enterprise, Government, Carriers and Service Providers around the globe.

Feature of the Month

Contactless Payments: Delivering Merchant and Consumer Benefits
Millions of U.S. consumers are already paying for purchases using contactless payment devices, with millions more expected this year as new financial industry-backed contactless payment initiatives are launched nationwide. Consumers love the convenience and speed of paying with a contactless card or fob--no more fumbling for cash, counting change, or worrying about whether they have enough cash for a purchase.

American Express, MasterCard and Visa have introduced contactless payment methods that help to standardize the technology and provide a reliable solution that can be easily used by consumers and cost-effectively implemented by merchants and acquirers. Both MasterCard PayPass™ and American Express ExpressPay™ implementations and Visa contactless specifications are based on the ISO/IEC 14443 standard and rely on the existing credit/debit card infrastructure to process contactless payment transactions. These payments typically replace cash or debit transactions, although they also replace low-value credit transactions.

According to Ariana Michele-Moore of the U.S.-based research firm Celent Communications, three market segments are particularly ripe for the introduction of contactless payment: fast food restaurants, movie theaters, and video stores. These segments generated $160 billion in sales in the United States in 2002, of which almost 95% were cash sales. According to Michele-Moore, by 2007 contactless devices will account for 8% of the market represented by these three segments.

Smart Card Talk is the monthly electronic newsletter of the world's largest smart card industry organization, providing members with the latest news and information about what's happening within the Smart Card Alliance. If you have news you would like to share, please send it to info@smartcardalliance.org. If you know someone who does not receive this newsletter and would like to be added to the list, please send an email here.

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Phone: (800) 556-6828 info@smartcardalliance.org · www.smartcardalliance.org