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Tbilisi, Georgia-based People's Bank has launched a contactless card local students and teachers can use to pay for retail purchases and transit fares, according to a statement this week from Oberthur Technologies SA, the France-based card vendor supplying technology for the program. The cards will carry Visa Inc.'s contactless payWave application, along with the proprietary Mifare application from Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors consumers use for transit payments. The bank's "Voyage Card" also supports payments with a contact chip, the French vendor says. Immediate comment from Oberthur and the bank was unavailable. The bank is issuing the card to students and teachers in Tbilisi. The card uses a new card-design technique called "hot foil stamping" that produces an embossed, holographic image, Oberthur says. In this case, the card surface will have a world map "stamped with holographic material," the statement says.
