JCB Card Integrates Credit, Transit Function
Japanese credit card firm, JCB, is to integrate its credit card functionality with the Kansai Thru Pass contactless transit card, to be issued in 2003 by Surotto Kansai Association. The card is unique in facilitating the post-payment of transit fares from an integrated circuit (IC) chip that is passed over sensors in ticket barriers, while also serving as a regular credit card. Fast fare payments will be possible on bus, subway and train routes operated by 39 major transit firms in Kansai, Japan's second-largest metropolitan area that includes Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe.When used for transit fares, the cards record the overall fare for traveling, and charge it to the user's credit account. In the next five years, JCB expects to issue 5 million Kansai Thru Pass cards and to build a merchant base with over 10,000 POS terminal card-accepting locations for retail transactions on associated transit routes. From this aspect, the contract is a novelty in the credit card industry as the first time transportation firms have agreed to outsource a contract to issue cards and to set up acceptance terminals for a transportation card.
JCB, which "is committed to expanding credit card multifunctionality ...with a creative new model of third-party processing in the payment industry", sees its Kansai Thru Pass contract as an opportunity "to build a new standard of service for the industry". Apart from delivering solutions for IC card-based payment systems, JCB will handle the settlement operations for the new transport payment scheme, in partnership with Hitachi Ltd, in addition to overseeing the telephone and customer care centers for transit fare payment systems.
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