Banksys, Europay International, Interpay, Proton World, Sermepa, Sistema 4B, Visa International and Cartes Bancaires have started work on "Ducato", the partnership project to implement and validate e-purses based on CEPS (Common Electronic Purse Specifications) technology.
The project aims to validate the CEPS-related technology in an international environment, and to demonstrate interoperability between different countries and different e-purse technologies, schemes, brands, clearing systems and hardware, say the companies.
A limited quantity of CEPS-based e-purse cards are to be issued in September of this year throughout Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain in live environments using three different CEPS-based e-purse technologies. The project is scheduled to end in the fourth quarter of 2001.