ST and OTI Deliver Approved Contactless Payment Solution

By: Online staff — Wireless Design & Development Asia
(Business News & Technology News, 21 Oct 2005)

STMicroelectronics (ST), the leader in smart card microcontrollers for financial and transportation applications, together with On Track Innovations Ltd (OTI), a global leader in contactless microprocessor-based smart card solutions, recently announced that their secure contactless microcontroller solution is the first solution approved by Visa International for use in its Visa Contactless program in the U.S.

ST will supply the contactless microcontroller and has partnered with OTI to provide the operating system and application, the contactless card technology including the inlay technology, and CPI Card Group, a leader in plastic card manufacturing, to embed the cards. Today, CPI is shipping volume quantities of this solution to banks in the U.S.

"ST with its outstanding history in deploying contact-less technologies in transport sector and its leadership in the secure payment market has all the experience combining the two technologies to offer secure and convenient contact-less banking solution," commented Claude Dardanne, group vice president, Memory Product Group. "This non-disruptive solution, created in conjunction with our partner OTI, has the added benefits of ease of implementation and compatibility with existing infrastructures."

"Our contactless solution provides issuers with a cost-effective, reliable and secure way to implement contactless cards. This approval further validates the strength of OTI and ST's combined chip solution. We are geared up to support contactless payment programs with our proven solution of both cards and readers," said Oded Bashan, president and CEO of OTI.

The combination of ST's secured contactless ST19WR02 microcontroller and OTI's Hercules operating system and contactless products and technology enabled the development of a robust solution that met the stringent security requirements of the payments industry, while also enabling the speed and convenience that is essential in contactless transactions. The microcontroller's fast contactless interface is suited for contactless payments and the proven security record of the ST19 family is especially attractive to the financial services industry in its fight against fraud.

STMicroelectronics