The certification ensures that all PayPass transactions are processed with all the technical requirements of the MasterCard PayPass specification.

Contactless payments are quick and convenient way for consumers to pay and are as safe as any traditional credit card transaction. The PayPass card uses a Radio Frequency (RF) payment device to transmit payment information securely from the card to the merchant terminal. This device eliminates the need for a merchant to swipe the card through a reader, allowing the cardholder to remain in control of the card and decrease transaction time. Today, more than 55,000 merchants accept the 16 million PayPass cards in issue globally.

Symmetrex, Inc. can now process the full range of transaction types, including PayPass, magnetic stripe-based payments and Chip and PIN based payments.

ABI Research has announced results from a study of contactless payments adoption concluding, "Worldwide demand for contactless hardware, software, and services to support contactless adoption will reach more than $1 billion by 2012, up from $260 million in 2007."

Edward Evans, Symmetrex CEO, comments, "This certification ensures that Symmetrex remains a leading contender within the processing and payments sector globally. We are now better able to service existing and future clients, such as banks and vendors, who have observed the advantages of integrating contactless functionality with existing and planned programs.

"Contactless payments will undoubtedly have a considerable impact on the payments industry as a whole. The rapidly growing demand for contactless payments, such as PayPass, is evident in a number of countries and territories. Symmetrex, Inc. is well positioned to accommodate this demand with end-to-end clearing and settlement processing solutions and certified for issuer processing in the United States of America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean as well as Middle East and Africa regions."

Owing to the dynamic nature of the Symmetrex, Inc. i24 Platform, implementation of payment services, including PayPass is especially straightforward. Vendors and banks wishing to implement MasterCard PayPass will require a period of system integration testing before implementation. PayPass uses standard card data for the payment transaction, leveraging the existing magnetic stripe-based or Chip and PIN-based payments infrastructure.