Headlines:
Peppercoin Rides with On Track
Peppercoin Inc. and On Track Innovations Ltd. have developed a prototype of a contactless mass-transit fare card.
Peppercoin, of Waltham, Mass., says its product is simpler and less expensive than existing contactless cards for the purchase of mass-transit fare. The system would work by letting consumers pre-purchase transit fare, which would be linked to the account of their choice.
Mark Friedman, Peppercoin's president and chief executive, said Tuesday in a press release, "Contactless fare payment with a regular debit or credit card brings added speed, convenience, and efficiency to people's mass-transit travel, including their daily commute."
The system combines Peppercoin's software with On Track Innovations' hardware. On Track is based in Rosh Pina, Israel, and has an office in Fort Lee, N.J.
Other companies are working on using contactless credit or debit cards to replace transit passes. The Washington Metro Area Transit Authority has used stored-value contactless cards since 1999, and since late 2004 it has offered a combination card that can also be used as a credit card, from Citigroup Inc. and MasterCard International.
Citi and MasterCard are also testing a contactless combo card for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Credit Union Selects PassMark
North Island Credit Union of San Diego plans to install authentication software from PassMark Security Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif.
The credit union said it expects to begin offering the software to members in the third quarter.
The software displays a user-selected image to verify that a bank's site is real, and it puts a file on the user's computer to confirm the user's identity. Users who want to access the site from a machine that does not have the file can answer a series of questions to authenticate themselves.
