Card Briefs: MasterCard Closes Deal for 51% of Mondex

MasterCard International said Monday that it had completed its 51% acquisition of Mondex International.

The remaining 49% of Mondex, the smart-card-based payment system spun off from Natwest Group of London last July, will be jointly owned by 19 banks around the globe.

Mondex is undergoing pilots in Swindon, England; Guelph, Ontario; and Hong Kong, and at Wells Fargo & Co.'s San Francisco headquarters.

H. Eugene Lockhart, MasterCard's president and chief executive officer, said the association will spell out in the next few months its strategy for smart cards for "both the near and longer term." MasterCard will adopt Mondex as its platform for future smart card products.

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