Thales ensures security of highly advanced integrated transportation payment system in Taiwan .

Thales today announced that P3, the leading solution for the smart card personalisation preparation process, was chosen as part of a payment solution for Southern Taiwan ’s transportation system. The Kaohsiung City Government (KCG) transportation project includes the launch of the world’s first MasterCard OneSMART™ PayPass™ Chip Combi Card, a dual interface smart card, formally known as the TaiwanMoney Card.

A consortium of six industry players is involved in the project, which will unify Taiwan ’s transportation system through an integrated payment system. The initiative serves to encourage consumers to take mass transportation from city to city, leading to increased domestic travel.

The TaiwanMoney Card will double as an e-ticket for mass transit in Southern Taiwan and enable citizens to easily pay for transportation usage on intercity coaches, local buses, trains, harbour ferries, and public car parks. The fully integrated contact and contactless chip solution will bring cardholders added convenience, flexibility and security when going about their daily activities.

The card will be issued with multiple applications, enabling it to be used as a regular EMV payment card and as the adoption of contactless payment terminals takes off, the card can be used as a simple tap-and-go card. The application keys, essential to the secure operation of the card, are generated and issued by Thales’ P3 secure data preparation system.

The Thales P3 system offers the ability to generate data for credit/debit and electronic purse payment cards and minimizes the need to make changes to the issuer's host system thereby reducing implementation costs and timescales. It also generates and maintains the cryptographic keys required for the secure personalisation of cards and the open architecture of P3 enables data to be prepared and loaded easily onto a variety of smart card technologies.

“We believe that the smart card is marking a dramatic shift in strategy from the payment associations enabling their entry into the transport sector,” said Richard Mallett, Managing Director of the e-Security activities of Thales in Asia Pacific. “It is revolutionising the way commuters use the transportation system in Southern Taiwan as well as increasing accessibility, convenience and bringing numerous value-added advantages to the public.”

Shuan Ghaidan, Vice President and Regional Head, Advanced Payment Systems, Asia Pacific, MasterCard International, said: "The introduction of the TaiwanMoney Card, the world's first MasterCard OneSMART™ PayPass™ Chip Combi Card programme, marks a significant milestone in the industry. Marrying the experience of different partners' expertise, such as the P3 solution from Thales, we are able to provide citizens of Southern Taiwan with a fully integrated contact and contactless chip solution."

The MasterCard OneSMART PayPass Chip Combi Card will integrate both contact and contactless chip payment solution s for electronic transportation payments. The contactless payment card is now also accepted in more and more convenience stores and fast food restaurants.

About MasterCard® PayPass™
MasterCard PayPass is a new contactless payment program that provides consumers with a simple way to pay. Using MasterCard PayPass, consumers simply “tap” their payment card, or alternative PayPass form factor, on a specially equipped merchant terminal, eliminating the need to swipe a card through a reader or fumble for cash and coins. The new solution is ideal for quick payment environments where speed is essential, such as quick serve restaurants, gas stations, drug stores, supermarkets and movie theatres.

About P3
The Thales’ P3 system is designed to provide card issuers with a ready-made way of migrating from magnetic stripe cards to smart cards. Aimed primarily at the payments card industry, it offers the ability to generate data for credit/debit and electronic purse payment cards. Using P3 reduces or eliminates the need to make changes to the issuer's host system thereby reducing implementation costs and timescales. Ideal for use in both personalisation bureaux and in-house card issuers such as banks and similar institutions, P3 generates and maintains the cryptographic keys required for the secure personalisation of cards. This includes the exchange of public key certificates with the scheme Certification Authorities operated by associations such as Visa and MasterCard.

About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, services and security markets. The group employs 60,000 people worldwide and generated revenues of €10.3 billion in 2004.

Operating in three main markets covering e-security, card payment and network security, Thales addresses the business, government and finance industry's need for cryptographic security products and solutions. Thales provides security solutions for over half of the world’s banks and the busiest stock exchanges. Thales dominates the Banking and Finance sectors, securing over 70% of all payment transactions globally.

Thales also offers a wide spectrum of security solutions to protect Government and Defence critical information infrastructures, thereby positioning the company as a leading worldwide supplier of certified network security products. Established in Asia Pacific since 1986, Thales’ e-security activities are represented in every major AP country.

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