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Subject:  1/7/2002--integrated into Mastercard Europe/Europay International |
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Author: Ducatopessimist mayindeed bethe one to save Penelope Pitstop |
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Date Posted: 21:27:39 02/06/03 Thu Symbol Last Change $ % Open High Low Volume More Information Broker Edit ERG 0.130 +0.000 +0.000 0.130 0.135 0.130 3,689,098 Profile Chart Customise Broker Quotes delayed 20 minutes, Australian Market is currently closed (4:23:25 PM:AEDT) Posted by: Pessimist Feb 6 2003 11:45:50:683AM Reply to post #3849 by lost Go to Post # Previous Respond Message List Hi lost. I hope different countries adopt the same methods before long. Otherwise travelling will become a nightmare. (Voluntary Disclosure:Position Short Term rating: Long Term Rating:) OZeStock Advertisment:"Get yourself an institutional advantage!" Europay International plus Mastercard--private share corporation. 1/7/2002--integrated into Mastercard Europe--new entity called Mastercard Incorporated. Principle former members are now shareholders. ----------------------------------------------------------- http://www.protonworld.com/press/pr/PR_2001-04-23_DUCATO.pdf ------------------------------------------------------------ 23/04/2001 p.1 PRESS RELEASE DUCATO PROJECT TO VALIDATE CEPS TECHNOLOGY HAS STARTED. ------------------------------------------------------------ Brussels, 23rd April 2001.Banksys, Europay International, Interpay, Proton World, Sermepa, Sistema 4B and Visa International, who announced their partnership in September 2000, joined by Cartes Bancaires in January 2001, have started the implementation and validation of e-purses based on the CEPS (Common Electronic Purse Specifications) technology. The project is named "Ducato".The project's name comes from the ducato d'oro, the golden coins issued by Venice in the fourteenth century, that became the world's first internationally accepted currency. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Ducato project's objectives are to validate the CEPS-related technology in a real, international environment, and to demonstrate interoperability, between different countries and different e-purse technologies, schemes, brands, clearing systems and hardware. The project will show that CEPS are reliable, ready for implementation and supported by industry-leading vendors and financial institutions. The partners in the Ducato project are:Banksys (the operator of the Bancontact/Mister Cash debit card system and the Proton e-purse system in Belgium) Europay International (the manager the Clip e-purse brand and provider of the EPSS and ECCSS international transaction-processing networks) Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB" (the French banking chip cards organisation) Interpay (the operator of the Chipknip e-purse scheme in the Netherlands)Proton World (the provider of CEPS-based e-purse technology to Banksys and Interpay)Sermepa (the Spanish operator and provider of the "Advantis" CEPS-based epurse technology to Sermepa members and to Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB") Sistema 4B (the operator and CEPS-based e-purse technology provider to the Monedero 4B e-purse scheme in Spain) Visa International (the owner of the Visa Cash e-purse brand and the provider of the VisaNet international transaction-processing network) The technical integration work required for the project has already begun. In September 2001, a limited quantity of CEPS-based e-purse cards will be issued in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain in live environments. In total, three different CEPS-based e-purse technologies will be used, and the project will demonstrate interoperability between them, both domestically and internationally. The project is scheduled to end in the fourth quarter of 2001.END ----------------------------------------------------------- Press Contacts BANKSYS http://www.banksys.be. or contact Marina De Moerlooze, Manager, Corporate Communications ------------------------------------------------------------ GSM/Mobile 0495 / 596 999 - Tel : 32 2 727 6822 - Fax : 32 2 727 2727 e-mail : marina.demoerlooze@banksys.be ------------------------------------------------------------ EUROPAY INTERNATIONAL http://www.europay.com or contact Saskia Devolder, telephone: +32 2 352 5858 e-mail: clip@europay.com ------------------------------------------------------------ GROUPEMENT DES CARTES BANCAIRES "CB" http://www.cartes-bancaires.comb or contact TBWA Corporate Charles Jorcin, Tel: + 33 1 49 09 26 75 (26 33) e-mail: cjorcin@tbwa-corporate.fr ------------------------------------------------------------ INTERPAY Nederland B.V. http://www.interpay.nl e-mail chipknip@wxs.nl ---------------------------------------------------------- PROTON WORLD http://www.protonworld.com or contact Ms. Dominique Hautain, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Office.Telephone + 32 2 724 5111 Fax + 32 2 724 5060 e-mail info@protonworld.com ------------------------------------------------------------ SERMEPA http://www.sermepa.com or contact Mrs Amparo Balaguer, Telephone +34 91 346 5671 e-mail abalaguer@sermepa.es ------------------------------------------------------------ SISTEMA 4B http://www.4b.es or contact Mr Carlos Gomez , telephone: +34 91 362 6309 e-mail gomezc@4b.es ------------------------------------------------------------ VISA INTERNATIONAL. http://www.visa.com. or contact Ms. Coelina Carter Telephone +44 207 795 5331, Fax +44 207 937 5660 e-mail: carterc@visa.com ------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.protonworld.com/press/pr/PR_2001-12-12_ducato.pdf ------------------------------------------------------------ 23/10/2001 p.1 of 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ DUCATO PROJECT SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED ------------------------------------------------------------ Smart Card Industry Leaders Implement Common Electronic Purse Specifications (CEPS). 12 December 2001 - The partners in the Ducato project (Banksys, Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB", Europay International, Interpay Nederland NV, Proton World, Sermepa, Sistema 4B and Visa International) announced today the completion of project Ducato – the first implementation of CEPS demonstrating international interoperability of different CEPS-based e-purse technologies. After the successful introduction of a 1st generation of ‘domestic’ e-purses, interoperability and therefore standardisation agreements were required to achieve international growth and deployment of smart card systems. For this reason a group of leading smart card industry players developed and published CEPS in 1999. CEPS standardises the underlying technology for an interoperable electronic purse system and therefore reduces infrastructure costs. CEPS leverages existing investments by making use of the banks’ current payments infrastructure, rather than inventing a whole new system. Today’s announcement of Ducato completion demonstrates that CEPS are robust, reliable and ready for implementation by issuers and acquirers on an international and an inter-technology basis, thus marking the "coming-of-age" of CEPS. Following publication of CEPS, a number of tasks, such as the establishment of type approval procedures and the upgrading of international networks, network simulators, terminal and host specifications and issuing systems needed to be completed to enable the implementation of CEPS-based systems. Card and terminal manufacturers also needed to develop CEPS-based components that are retro-compatible with existing e-purse technologies, to facilitate migration to CEPS-based systems. Project Ducato was launched in September 2000. The project aimed to validate CEPS-related technologies in a truly international environment with banking organisations in various countries using international payments schemes, demonstrating that all the participants have completed their share of the tasks above. ------------------------------------------------------------ 23/10/2001 p.2 of 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ The two CEPS-compatible smart card technologies used in the Ducato project are Sermepa’s Advantis (applied by Sermepa and Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB") and Proton World’s Proton Prisma (applied by Banksys and Interpay). Banksys and Interpay used C-ZAM/Smash terminals from Banksys for CEPS load and payment transactions. The Advantis multi-application technology from Sermepa enables EMV Debit/Credit and CEPS functionality in the same card. Those applications have been officially validated by Visa International and Europay International. Proton Prisma can be implemented on mono-application cards or multipleapplication cards (combining EMV credit/debit, e-purse, PKI-based identification, contactless transport ticketing etc) Proton-based CEPS cards can be branded Visa Cash or Clip. ----------------------------------------------------------- Visa International is ready to process Visa Cash through VisaNet and Europay International is ready to process Clip transactions through EPSNet. The successful completion of Ducato means that CEPS is a mature standard that is ready for implementation. Currently, CEPS is supported by organisations from over 30 countries, representing more than 90% of the world’s electronic purse cards. Existing purse schemes can now look into CEPS migration. ----------------------------------------------------------- 23/10/2001 p.3 of 4 Quotes: ----------------------------------------------------------- Hervé Kergoat, Head of Prepaid products, Europay international: "The DUCATO project is a crucial demonstration that standardisation has once again proven its efficiency: CEPS allows for interoperability whatever the technology supplier, the Brand or the network used in a domestic and cross-border environment. CEPS is good as it stands and this is a key result. Clip is thus fully ready for implementation as a perfect add-on to our Maestro and MasterCard products." Yves Randoux, CEO of Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB" said: "By participating in Ducato project, the aim of Groupement des Cartes Bancaires was to validate CEPS Specifications and technology, and to test interoperability between countries and technologies: this has been successfully achieved. Sharing a concrete experience with our partners has demonstrated that CEPS provides the appropriate level of interoperability in order to be ready for the French E-purse migration as soon as French Banking Community takes the decision". Armand Linkens, Managing Director and CEO of Proton World, said "Proton World has been from day one a committed supporter of the Ducato initiative. We are very happy to demonstrate today that our purse technology is ready for international interoperability and together with our partners in the project, we can underwrite that CEPS is now an international standard ready to go live. Our customers that choose to migrate to the CALC-based multiapplication platform Proton Prisma give their card holders access to a state-of-the-art internationally interoperable purse application that may carry the brands Clip or Visa Cash. José Gabeiras, SERMEPA´s CEO said: "Ducato has demonstrated that CEPS is the standard that will make possible the interoperability among different electronic purse technologies, regardless of the brand. SERMEPA is delighted to offer to their owners and other card Issuers their proprietary technology "Advantis", which has been successfully validated all along the Ducato project. The "Advantis" technology provides worldwide interoperability for all payment applications, including EMV and CEPS. The "Advantis" technology also enables complete freedom to use any combination of the payment applications both among them and in combination with non-financial applications". Alfonso de la Viuda, Managing Director and CEO of Sistema 4B said: "The contribution of experiences reached in the development of domestic electronic purse from several entities, has permitted the achievement of the standard CEPS. DUCATO as implementation project of the specifications, demonstrates their viability and international interoperability inside the current infrastructures of payment and on multiple several technological platforms. DUCATO has allowed to have available the international channels (Europay International and VISAInternational ) and open the settings to other entities and provider's solutions to implement it. Everything confirm CEPS as the international electronic purse standard application on chip cards" ----------------------------------------------------------- Jon Prideaux, Executive Vice President Visa EU said: "Ducato is also an important milestone for Visa, it demonstrates that Visa's infrastructure is ready for Visa Cash CEPS roll-out. CEPS is part of Visa’s EU's €168M chip incentive program, so we have to meet the demand from our Members who wish to introduce a Visa Cash application to their debit and credit cards when migrating to EMV. This will enable Visa cardholders to use their cards on all five continents where Visa Cash is present." ------------------------------------------------------------ Press Contacts BANKSYS ------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.banksys.be. ------------------------------------------------------------ Marina De Moerlooze, tel: 32 2 727 6822 e-mail : marina.demoerlooze@banksys.be ------------------------------------------------------------ EUROPAY INTERNATIONAL http://www.europay.com Cheryllyn Humphreys, tel: +32 2 352 5647 e-mail: clip@europay.com ------------------------------------------------------------ GROUPEMENT DES CARTES BANCAIRES "CB" http://www.cartes-bancaires.com Monique Willot, tel: + 33 1 53 89 38 52 e-mail: monique-willot@cartes-bancaires.com ------------------------------------------------------------ INTERPAY Nederland B.V. http://www.interpay.nl e-mail chipknip@interpay.nl ------------------------------------------------------------ PROTON WORLD http://www.protonworld.com Ms. Dominique Hautain, tel: + 32 2 724 5111 e-mail info@protonworld.com ------------------------------------------------------------ SERMEPA http://www.sermepa.com Mrs Amparo Balaguer, tel: +34 91 346 5671 e-mail abalaguer@sermepa.es ------------------------------------------------------------ SISTEMA 4B http://www.4b.es Carlos Gomez, telephone: +34 91 362 6309 e-mail gomezc@4b.es ------------------------------------------------------------ VISA INTERNATIONAL http://www.visa.com. Ms. Coelina Carter, tel:+44 207 795 5331 e-mail: carterc@visa.com ------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.visaeu.com/press_release/press63.html ----------------------------------------------------------- Ducato project to validate CEPS technology has started ----------------------------------------------------------- Brussels, Paris, Utrecht, Madrid and London, 30 April 2001 Banksys, Europay International, Interpay, Proton World, Sermepa, Sistema 4B and Visa International, who announced their partnership in September 2000, joined by Cartes Bancaires in January 2001, have started the implementation and validation of the e-purses based on the CEPS (Common Electronic Purse Specifications) technology. The project is named "Ducato". The project's name comes from the ducato d'oro, the golden coins issued by Venice in the fourteenth century, that became the world's first internationally accepted currency. ----------------------------------------------------------- The Ducato project's objectives are to validate the CEPS-related technology in a real, international environment, and to demonstrate interoperability, between different countries and different e-purse technologies, schemes, brands, clearing systems and hardware. The project will show that CEPS are reliable, ready for implementation and supported by industry-leading vendors and financial institutions. ----------------------------------------------------------- The partners in the Ducato project are: ----------------------------------------------------------- Banksys (the operator of the Proton e-purse scheme in Belgium) Europay International (the owner of the Clip e-purse brand and the provider of the EPSNet international transaction-processing network) Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB" (the French banking cards organisation) Interpay (the operator of the Chipknip e-purse scheme in the Netherlands) Proton World (the provider of CEPS-based e-purse technology to Banksys and Interpay) Sermepa (the provider of the "Advantis" CEPS-based e-purse technology and an operator of the Visa Cash brand in Spain) Sistema 4B (the operator and CEPS-based e-purse technology provider to the Monedero 4B e-purse scheme in Spain) Visa International (the owner of the Visa Cash e-purse brand and the provider of the VisaNet international transaction-processing network) The technical integration work required for the project has already begun. From September 2001 on, a limited quantity of CEPS-based e-purse cards will be issued in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain in live environments. In total, three different CEPS-based e-purse technologies will be used, and the project will demonstrate interoperability between them, both domestically and internationally. The project is scheduled to end in the fourth quarter of 2001. ----------------------------------------------------------- The Visa EU press office only deals with media enquiries relating to the organisation’s activities in the region. Journalists should email: eumedia@visa.com http://www.smartcities.co.uk/ceps.htm First International Pilot of CEPS-based E-Purse Smart Cards ----------------------------------------------------------- Issuers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain co-operate with Europay and Visa to offer e-purse interoperability. ----------------------------------------------------------- Ghent, 12 September 2000 Today, at the Proton World Forum, the major annual event for Proton users and partners, Banksys SA, CEPSCO Española, Europay International, Interpay Nederland NV, Proton World, and Visa International announced that they would be launching the world's first pilot of internationally-interoperable e-purse smart cards based on CEPS (Common Electronic Purse Specifications) on 15 January 2001. ----------------------------------------------------------- The pilot will use CEPS-based versions of existing e-purse smart cards: Belgian Proton cards, Dutch Chipknip cards and Spanish Visa Cash cards, and will be in two phases. ----------------------------------------------------------- Phase Zero will run from January-March 2001, and will use around 400 cards which will be issued to members of staff of Banksys, CEPSCO Española, Europay International, Interpay Nederland NV and Visa International. In addition to the existing domestic e-purse brands, the cards will also be branded either Clip (Europay International's international e-purse brand) or Visa Cash (Visa's international e-purse brand). The cards will be used at terminals in the offices of the participants in Brussels, Utrecht and Madrid and in a few dozen selected merchants in the immediate environs. The cards will be issued by existing issuers, and loaded with real value (euros). The transactions will be cleared through the existing clearing networks for domestic transactions, and through either the VisaNet network (for Visa Cash-branded cards) or the EPSNet network (for Clip-branded cards) for international transactions. ----------------------------------------------------------- Phase One will run from April-June 2001, and will use around 1,000 cards, which will be issued to selected existing e-purse cardholders in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, and will involve a larger number of merchants. Again the cards will be loaded with real value and will be cleared through a process duplicated from the previous Phase. ----------------------------------------------------------- In both Phases, cardholders will be able to load their cards and to make purchases both in their "home" country and in the two "foreign" countries, thus demonstrating the interoperability that CEPS offers to e-purse issuers. The interoperability will not only be between countries and schemes but also between the Proton technology used in Belgium and the Netherlands and the proprietary technologies used in Spain. ---------------------------------------------------------- The international interoperability offered by CEPS is being increasingly requested by e-purse issuers and cardholders to make them as easy to use as euro notes and coins (which will enter circulation on 1 January 2002 in 11 countries), as well as when travelling abroad or over the Internet. ----------------------------------------------------------- CEPS were created by a group of leading e-purse issuers, technology providers and international scheme managers, and were published in March 1999. The specifications are owned, developed and managed by CEPSCO, an organisation company established by the creators of CEPS, which will define common certification requirements to ensure interoperability. ----------------------------------------------------------- Chris Lebeer, Managing Director of Banksys, said: "The major interest for Banksys is to validate the CEPS technology in a technological trial and to test very soon the new Proton R4 platform for cards that the Belgian banks will issue in 2002. As well as the CEPS-based e-purse application, we will install EMV, file management and authentification services on the new platform cards. The R4/CEPS activation roadmap will be discussed with the Belgian banks." ----------------------------------------------------------- Gaylon Howe, Chairman of CEPSCO, said, “CEPS has paved the way for the creation of an open, de facto, global electronic purse standard and we are thrilled to see that the efforts of CEPSCO are helping to achieve worldwide interoperability. Today’s announcement is significant because the specifications are being implemented by international electronic purse providers validating that CEPS is truly a global standard.” ----------------------------------------------------------- Mr. José Manuel Gabeiras and Mr. Alfonso de la Viuda, Managing Directors of CEPSCO Española, said "This project is the most significant move to date towards making the electronic purse a universal means of payment. Visa EU and Europay International, the main card brand-owners in Europe, major European payment systems operators, and different chip technologies that meet the CEPS requirements are all joining together to build a pan-European electronic purse whose commercial launch in Spain is scheduled for the last quarter of 2001, in time for the arrival of the single European currency." ----------------------------------------------------------- Hervé Kergoat, Head of Prepaid Products at Europay said " Europay International is delighted to actively contribute to this CEPS pilot, along with other key e-purse players. The pilot demonstrates the growing reality of CEPS as a credible international standard, and comes as a perfect preparation for the roll-out in 2002 of Maestro/MasterCard + Clip cards in a number of European countries, in particular in the euro zone. These cards will significantly enhance the security of our Maestro and MasterCard products, and provide true cross-border functionality to euro e-purse operators. In addition, thanks to their public key technology, these cards will open the door to new secure identification services, either for banking applications or for other applications in partnership with other industry sectors." ----------------------------------------------------------- Armand Linkens, Managing Director and CEO of Proton World, said "Proton World was created to boost international efforts towards interoperability. I am proud that the company has played a key part in the development of CEPS: we were the first to announce our intention to implement CEPS in April 1999; in November 1999 we won the Sesames Award for the CEPS-based Proton e-purse and in July 2000 we joined CEPSCO. I am sure that the success of this pilot will attract other e-purse issuers to join us, so that CEPS can be developed as we intended into a worldwide standard." Jon Prideaux, Executive Vice-President, Virtual Visa, said: "As one of the founders of the CEPS standard, Visa is proud to have seen it evolve to be the de facto industry standard, endorsed by over 95% of the world's e-purse programmes. With the rapid development of new technologies and the common currency in Europe, consumer interest in an e-purse with international functionality has never been more apparent.Today Visa Cash provides consumers unmatched global functionality. Visa cash issuers will be able to build on a truly global brand with a presence on 5 continents and 5 years' experience." ----------------------------------------------------------- Notes for Editors ----------------------------------------------------------- BANKSYS In 1977 and 1978 the Mister Cash and Bancontact ATM networks were launched in Belgium. In order to meet business and customer demands the two networks became compatible in 1987. In 1989 Bancontact and Mister Cash merged and the management company Banksys, whose shareholders are most of the Belgian Banks, was established. For more than 20 years, Banksys has developed end-to-end payment systems, with significant investments in security and technology. As a result of this experience, the Proton electronic purse has been developed as the world standard in electronic purse technology. Launched in Belgium in 1995, Proton is the most widely-accepted electronic purse in the world. Its commercial success led Banksys to create Proton World International in 1998, of which it remains the major shareholder. It is based on this solid experience of having issued more than 8 million smart cards in Belgium that Banksys is now expanding its products portfolio to include new services such as Internet chip-based payment transactions, interoperable chip-based transactions, multi-application cards and terminals, GSM secure services, and many others. For more information, visit the web site : http://www.banksys.be. or contact Marina De Moerlooze, Corporate Communication Manager, GSM/Mobile 0495 / 596 999 - Tel : 32 2 727 6822 - Fax : 32 2 727 2727 E-mail : marina.demoerlooze@banksys.be -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CEPSCO, LLC was incorporated in October 1999. It is responsible for managing and licensing the CEPS, determining certification requirements, establishing a CEPS approval authority, promoting CEPS as a worldwide open electronic purse standard, and establishing working groups to integrate enhancements. The original shareholders of CEPSCO, LLC were CEPSCO Española A.I.E., EURO Kartensysteme, Europay International and Visa International. In July 2000, Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (CB) and Proton World joined CEPSCO, LLC. All participants in CEPSCO, LLC are required to publicly endorse and support CEPS and must be members of the financial industry, or owned by members of the financial industry. For more information on CEPSCO, LLC please visit the website at http://www.cepsco.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CEPSCO ESPANOLA, Created by the major payment system operators in Spain (SERMEPA and Sistema 4B), CEPSCO Española was formed to promote the acceptance and usage of the Common Electronic Purse Specifications (CEPS) throughout the region by the financial institutions represented by the two organizations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SERMEPA is a technology company that provides card-banking services to 154 financial institutions. SERMEPA operates the world’s largest Visa Cash program with more than 4.2 million cards issued in Spain. It has achieved a high reputation in Latin America as a card payment system supplier and has been a key component of the design and development of chip-based systems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SISTEMA 4B is a service company dedicated to the development and implementation of payment systems for its 32 member banks. It represents an efficiency tool for all of them, without lessening each bank’s competitive policies. The services provided by Sistema 4B cover the full cycle of the payment processing industry. With a centralized node scheme, to which 10,000 ATM units and 200,000 POS devices are connected, Sistema 4B is responsible for network control, authorization, clearing and settlement management. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EUROPAY INTERNATIONAL, headquartered in Waterloo, Belgium, is the European banks' leading provider of personal payment and related services. At present, 239.5 million cards (Eurocard-MasterCard, Maestro, Cirrus and eurocheque) provide European and global debit and credit services, and offer cash access to Europe's largest network of over 242,000 ATMs in 41 countries. Through its alliance with MasterCard International, Europay offers banks products accepted at almost 530,000 ATMs and 17 million locations worldwide. In particular with its Maestro brand, Europay International, represents more than 80% (more than 158 million cards) of the debit market in Europe. Clip, the newest Europay product, was created to internationalise all domestic electronic purse products, especially within Europe, and is an excellent compliment to existing debit cards (Maestro). Clip, with its brand already present on 19 million German cards and one million Spanish cards, adds cross-border functionality to domestic e-purses just as Maestro does within the debit card sector. Europay's Web site at http://www.europay.com provides much more information about Europay or send an e-mail to Clip@europay.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERPAY Nederland B.V. is a major service provider in payment processing and related services. It processes large transaction quantities and thus represents an important link in the flow of payments in the Netherlands. Each day, Interpay processes more than six million payments that are made through giro collection, direct debit authorisation, funds transfers, Eurocard/MasterCard credit cards, PIN cards, Chipknips and SET --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROTON WORLD was created by American Express, Banksys, ERG, Interpay and Visa International to promote and implement common smart card and electronic purse standards. Proton World delivers smart card solutions world-wide, continuing the development and licensing of Proton technology-based smart card applications, which have already been chosen by 21 countries. Proton is the world's most broadly implemented smart card technology in national roll-outs and is the most actively used world-wide: Proton-based smart card schemes have together performed more than 166 million e-purse transactions since their introduction. There are more than 280,000 Proton-compatible terminals installed world-wide. The Proton technology supports multiple applications (e.g. e-commerce, access control, loyalty schemes, campus cards etc.) and is compatible with the Common Electronic Purse Specifications (CEPS) which will ensure the interoperability of electronic purse schemes world-wide. For more information on Proton World, please visit our website at http://www.protonworld.com or contact Ms. Dominique Hautain, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Office. Telephone + 32 2 724 5111 Fax + 32 2 724 5060 e-mail info@protonworld.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISA INTERNATIONAL. As the “World's Best Way to Pay,” Visa is the world’s leading payment brand and the largest payment system worldwide with more volume than all other major payment cards combined. Visa plays a pivotal role in advancing new payment products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 member financial institutions and their cardholders. Visa has more than 80 smart card programs in 35 countries and on the Internet, with 23 million Visa chip cards, including 8 million Visa Cash cards. Visa is pioneering SET Secure Electronic Transaction™ programs to enable and advance Internet commerce. There are over 1 billion Visa, Visa Electron, Visa Cash, Interlink and PLUS cards in the market. Visa-branded cards generate US$1.6 trillion in annual volume and are accepted at over 19 million worldwide locations, including at more than 627,000 ATMs in the Visa Global ATM Network. Visa’s Internet address is http://www.visa.com. For further information, please contact Stacey Torbit, Tel +44 207 795 5390, Fax +44 207 937 5208 or e-mail: torbits@visa.com [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |