TORONTO Bank of Nova Scotia and a group of technology companies have developed Canadas first smart card that can be used as a credit card and an electronic purse and for store loyalty programs and other functions.
The card which will be the first in Canada to use international and Open Platform standards.
The Solstice Alliance, a three-month-old consortium of technology companies, helped develop the card. Its members include Oasis Technology Ltd., Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Smart Chip Technologies Inc., Ingenico, and Silverline Technologies Ltd.s CIT e-payment division.
Early next year more than 12,000 bank customers in Barrie, Ontario, will participate in a pilot program for the card, Scotiabank said late last month. Around 300 area merchants will accept the new credit card, it said.
The bank has run a chip-based debit card pilot for three years in Barrie, and 60,000 of those cards are in use in the 90,000-resident area.
Several local merchants offer loyalty programs, mostly punch-card type programs, using that card, a bank spokesman said. For example, a coffee shop uses it to track of how many cups a customer has bought; after a set number the customer gets a free cup.
