The six-month trial will be rolled out in New South Wales, with the first phase involving 33,000 CBA cardholders who will be able to use their MasterCard PayPass cards at more than 150 participating merchants. Shops include fast food restaurants and convenience stores for payments under A$35. Cardholders will not need to enter a PIN or sign a receipt, resulting in faster transaction times and therefore reducing queuing time for customers at the store and improving the service.

When the card is placed before the reader, the reader beeps to let the cardholder know that the card has been read and payment has been made. The security remains as high as for a traditional credit card.

Gemplus (Paris: LU0121706294) provided the GemInstant cards for this project. GemInstant is a range of contactless payment solutions already tried and tested in other parts of the world. "We knew that Gemplus's expertise in contactless technology goes back over 10 years and it has real international coverage when it comes to contactless payment" said Mr Scott Henricks, General Manager, Consumer Financing & Relationship Marketing, Retail Banking Services Commonwealth Bank.

Gemplus has been present in the Australian market for many years, which was reinforced in 2000 by setting up a local joint venture, LM Gemplus Pty Ltd. Since then, the company has established successful long term relationships with its clients and continues to invest in local technical support and solutions tailored for the Australian environment. This local presence was a factor in their selection by CBA for this project.

"Contactless payment is becoming an international trend and innovative banks such as CBA want to be the first to provide their customers with this convenient way to pay" commented Philippe David, Vice President, Business Development, Financial Services, Gemplus. "We are showing once again our commitment to innovative projects by being involved in Australia's first MasterCard PayPass pilot after successful implementations in America, Europe and Asia".