Ray Van Eng (12/09/96)
The Guelph, Canada test of the Mondex electronic cash system is on track and supported by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and the Royal Bank of Canada. All 36 of the existing automated banking machines (ABM) throughout this southern Ontario city about 70 miles west of Toronto with about 100,000 people will be converted to accept the Mondex card by the end of this year. Earlier in September, the Mondex card was being used in Guelph in a retail environment involving city and bank staffs and a dozen downtown merchants. With scheduled roll-outs starting in early 1997, the chip embedded smart cards will be accepted among 500 participating merchants throughout the entire city with at least 10,000 cards to be issued to residents.
Bell Canada has provided compatible personal and pay phones to aid the pilot. The Hongkong Bank of Canada (HKBC) is watching the results closely as they will be an active participant in the national Mondex roll-out expected in 1998. Incidentally, HKBC's parent is the London based Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation who has helped Mondex tremendously in the implementation of the Mondex cards in the Asia Pacific region. This full scale city-wide test of the Mondex card is the first of its kind in North America and the second time in the world after the initial pilot that was being conducted at Mondex's home turf in Swindon, England. In the US, seven major banks and finical institutions got together to form the Mondex USA. The founding members are Chase Manhattan, Dean Witter Discover (NOVUS), First Chicago NBD, MasterCard, Michigan National Bank, AT&T Universal Card Services, and Wells Fargo Bank. The alliance is aimed at developing and deploying the Mondex electronic cash system in the United States. This group of seven financial institutions will be actively recruiting licensees to provide the Mondex card to their customers and merchants. They will also be working closely with technology and equipment vendors to add value to the Mondex system. Future enhancement to the system could include royalty programs and the storage of personal information for possible health care, legal and other commercial applications. MasterCard alone will be able to offer the Mondex system to its 13,000 financial institutions members to ensure a widespread acceptance of the Mondex system. Mastercard together with Visa International already have plans to incorporate smart card features into all of their existing credit card products by 1998. Mondex USA has a home page on the Internet: www.mondexusa.com. |
At
an ABM terminal, the cardholder will be able to deposit/withdraw cash to
and from the card, lock or unlock the card, set/change their security code,
print out the last ten transactions, and check to see how much money is
left on the card. 