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Ingenico S.A. is installing software on its terminals to enable merchants to accept contactless payments from consumers using sQuidcard, a prepaid card scheme based in the United Kingdom. Consumers can obtain the cards from the company's Web site or merchants who take part in the scheme, and then load cash onto the cards through electronic accounts. France-based Ingenico has shipped at least 200 terminals with the software, and more than 5,000 terminals should be able to accept sQuidcard payments by the end of the year, Adam Smith, sQuidcard managing director, tells CardLine Global. The scheme operates as a subsidiary of UK-based Nucleus Ltd., and though both are based in the UK, Smith expects the sQuidcard program to expand to Australia, Africa and other parts of Europe, though he gave no schedule. The scheme says consumers have received at least 5,000 cards, which consumers have used to make more than 57,000 transactions, a sQuidcard spokesperson says. Late last year, UK-based coffee chain Coffee Republic, which operates about 200 stores, said it would accept the cards (CardLine Global, 10 Dec. 2008). Ingenico did not respond to requests for comment.
