Visa Goes Contactless

SAN FRANCISCO - (11/11/05) -- Visa International announcedThursday it will begin shipping a new type of contactless creditand debit card to its member credit unions and banks in 2006, thefirst industry-wide distribution of the contactless cards. Thecards will be embedded with tiny antennas, which will make iteasier to produce cards that will stand out in a broad array ofcards that consumers can simply wave near readers to make payments.The cards can be held at different angles, rather than justparallel, like most contactless cards, which are referred to as'tap and go,' and must actually touch the reader to make a payment.Several other card companies have introduced contactless cards thisyear, but in limited markets.