MasterCard has signed a development agreement with French smart card systems vendor Ask to create a paper-based contactless payment system designed for the mass transit market in the US.
Under the agreement the partners will team up to develop a paper-based contactless system that incoporates the PayPass system that that could be used to replace magnetic stripe cards.
Commenting on the paper-based system, Kathleen Reilly, MasterCard Worldwide, says: "In a subway environment, limited-use, paper-based contactless fare tickets could replace standard mag-stripe fare cards for riders who don't have a PayPass-enabled payment card.
"This solution would enable all riders to tap their way through the turnstile."
MasterCard is cuurently participating in a contactless trial in the New York City subway system and on the Ohio Turnpike toll road.
In a separate move MasterCard says it has assigned the PayPass ISO/IEC 14443 implementation specification version 1.1 to EMVCo, the EMV standards body jointly owned by JCB, Visa and MasterCard that manages and maintains the global EMV specifications.
The version will be the basis for the EMV Contactless Communication Protocol Specification, to be released in the second quarter of 2007.
Until then, EMVCo will administer the licensing and distribution of the PayPass ISO/IEC 14443 spec, which defines a contactless communication protocol and associated testing requirements for radio frequency-based contactless payments at the point of sale. It is an established specification already in use by JCB, MasterCard and Visa.