NEW ORLEANS -- Chemical Banking Corp. plans to issue smart cards that can be used by bank employees to make purchases in the company cafeteria, in a test that could lead to issuance of smart cards to bank customers.
The test will be conducted by the bank and AT&T Smart Cards Inc., a unit of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. in Somerset, N.J. The companies announced the alliance Wednesday at the Retail Delivery Systems Conference.
The employees will be issued AT&T contactless smart cards, which look like conventional, magnetic-stripe bank cards but have microprocessors and memory chips laminated within their plastic shells.
Employees will use the cards to transfer cash value from their bank accounts at select Chemical automated teller machines, and to spend the funds at the cafeteria.
