Executive Director's Letter

Dear members and friends of the Alliance:

With my obsession over smart cards because of what I do, naturally I have assembled a fairly large and diverse collection of them over the years.  I also look for opportunities to purchase or subscribe to smart cards that I can actually use on occasion.  This has not been an easy task as I am sure many of our readers in the United States can attest to.  However, there have been some exceptions.  I have been a long time American Express Blue cardholder and I installed my reader and downloaded the ID Keeper application when it came out a few years ago.  My Blue card stays in my wallet as my credit card, even though I can’t use the contact chip for purchases. When American Express made its ExpressPay contactless key tag available, I was on the phone immediately ordering my own. I also carry a Target Smart Visa card, which I used twice but now I don’t have a use for anymore, and a Philadelphia Eagles (my team) NFL affinity credit card from MBNA that has MasterCard’s contactless PayPass technology inside (although I don’t have tickets to get into the Eagles stadium so I can’t make purchases with it).  I also carry a Washington Metro SmarTrip card that I use quite regularly on my frequent visits to our nation’s capital and, of course, a FedEx Kinko’s card since I am always making copies and shipping packages.  

Well, last week I got an unexpected surprise.  I rushed in to my local CVS pharmacy near our Princeton Junction, NJ headquarters to pick up a prescription.  While waiting in the checkout line, a new Hypercom POS terminal on the counter with the ExpressPay logo on it caught my eye.  I looked around to see if there were any special announcements or promotions going on, but I saw nothing.  When the cashier rang up my purchase, I whipped out my American Express keychain device and tapped it on the terminal.  The clerk just stared at the terminal, not knowing what was going to happen.  We both smiled when the printer starting spitting out the receipt after a momentary pause. She asked me to show her my ExpressPay device since she hadn’t seen one before.  She even called her manager over to show him as well.  Well, my first contactless transaction wasn’t so fast because everyone wanted to know what had just happened – but it worked, with no signature required, just as advertised.  CVS is going to see me a lot more of me now that I’ve found another working smart card application that I can use.

Member Profile

This month Smart Card Talk spoke with Michael M. Richardson, President & COO, of SMART System Technologies, Inc.

1. What are SMART System Technologies' main business profile and offerings?

SMART System Technologies, Inc. (SST) is a leading provider of merchant-centric 1:1 loyalty and coalition marketing applications and services. The company's PowerPay(TM) solution provides a quick and rewarding cashless payment experience to consumers, and a powerful marketing and segment-specific promotional communications tool to sports properties, branded merchants and retailers. Leveraging ISO 14443 standards for proximity card technology, as well as on-line hosting and SMS messaging capabilities, PowerPay is being used by thousands of consumers and multiple clients in Detroit and Philadelphia, representing the current largest deployment of multi-application integrated contactless payment and loyalty in North America.

Feature of the Month

Smart Cards - The Latin American Market

A number of market factors are now starting to drive smart card deployment in Latin America. The migration of mobile telecommunications operators to GSM technology, the migration to EMV in the financial sector, the move to smart transit fare cards and new government and commercial secure identification initiatives are all contributing to the growth of the smart card market in Latin America. This article provides an overview of Brazilian and Mexican smart card markets and describes the Smart Card Alliance Latin America initiative.

The Brazilian Market

Brazil alone holds a large portion of the Latin American market in all industries. It is by far the most populated and largest country and one of the most technologically advanced countries in Latin America. Both the mobile telecommunications (GSM) and financial markets are key drivers for smart cards in Brazil, with Brazil being the largest Latin America market for GSM applications. All Brazilian mobile carriers, with the exception of Vivo, have begun to adopt GSM, migrating away from TDMA and CDMA.

Brazil is also now deploying EMV-compliant smart cards for financial payments. This is clearly an advantage for Brazil's banking industry in comparison to other Latin American countries who have not yet started to convert to smart cards in the banking sector. Deploying EMV-compliant smart cards gives Brazil an edge in security and fraud protection.

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