PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 03/24/08 -- The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council is kicking off its fourth year with new officers and steering committee members, including the re-election of Chair Paul Korczak, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit, and a new industry white paper addressing the hottest topic in transit today -- financial/transit payment convergence.

"Transportation Council members represent a broad spectrum of leaders from the transportation, financial services and smart card industries," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "Now moving into its fourth year, the Council has become a key resource for information, technology considerations and operational best practices involved in more efficient and convenient transit, parking, and tolling systems. The council has completed projects looking at approaches that use established payment methods and exploring new approaches involving smart cards and interoperable contactless bank card payment systems."

The Transportation Council officers for 2008 are:

--  Chair - Paul Korczak, MTA New York City Transit (re-elected to 2nd
    term).
--  Vice Chair, Transit - Craig Roberts, Utah Transit Authority (re-
    elected to 2nd term).
--  Vice Chair, Parking - Thomas Wunk, Scheidt & Bachmann.
--  Vice Chair, Tolling - Ernest Tollerson, Metropolitan Transportation
    Authority.
    

Newly elected steering committee members are:

--  Doug Deckert, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
--  Michael Laezza, Thales Transportation Systems
--  Larry Weissbach, ERG Group
    

"Convergence will be a key theme for the Transportation Council in 2008," said Paul Korczak. "We plan to continue to explore convergence of financial and transit payments, and broaden that exploration to possibilities within parking and tolling, too. We're also in the process of producing a white paper that looks at how this convergence can serve the unbanked and underbanked transit rider."

A new white paper, "Co-Branded Multi-Application Contactless Cards for Transit and Financial Payment," provides an overview of an approach for transit/financial payment convergence that leverages co-branded card business models and the multi-application capabilities provided by smart card technology. It was written to complement the previous Transportation Council white paper, "Transit and Contactless Financial Payments: New Opportunities for Collaboration and Convergence." Both papers can be found at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-councils-transportation.

"The Council has now completed white papers that review two different approaches for convergence -- direct acceptance of American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa contactless payment products at the point of transit payment and/or boarding, and use of a co-branded, multi-application card that carries both financial payment and transit payment data files," said Vanderhoof. "Both of these resources provide transit agencies with information that they can use to determine the model that meets their unique market requirements."

The new white paper explores the key commercial, operational support and technical considerations that financial issuers and transit agencies should discuss when contemplating the implementation of a co-branded multi-application transit/financial payment card. Case studies of three programs, the Oyster/Barclaycard, Taipei smart card program and TaiwanMoney card, which have implemented co-branded multi-application contactless transit/financial cards, are also included in the paper.

The white paper involved a broad set of participants, including: ACS, Barclays, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cubic, ERG Group, Giesecke & Devrient, IfD Consulting, Infineon Technologies, INSIDE Contactless, JPMorgan Chase, Keane, MasterCard Worldwide, MTA/New York City Transit, Power2Process, Scheidt & Bachmann, Taipei Smart Card Corporation, Thales Transportation Systems, Transport for London, TranSys, Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, U.S. Dept. of Transportation/Volpe Center, USA Technologies, Utah Transit Authority, VeriFone, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

About The 2008 Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council Officers

Chair, Paul Korczak. Korczak is the assistant chief officer of MetroCard sales operations for MTA New York City Transit. At MTA, Korczak's responsibilities include all aspects of the $2.3 billion in sales of MetroCard fare media through vending machines, a retail sales network of nearly 4,500 locations, and transit benefits programs.

Vice Chair, Transit, Craig Roberts. Roberts is responsible for technology program development and electronic fare collection at Utah Transit Authority. Roberts manages UTA's electronic fare collection ski service pilot, charting the course for full system EFC deployment and directing an interagency collaborative technology deployment effort called the Center for Applied Transit Technology.

Vice Chair, Parking, Thomas Wunk. Wunk is the vice president of operations at Scheidt & Bachmann. Wunk has been in the parking control industry since 1973 and has designed, installed, and serviced parking control systems all over the world. His duties have included sale, design, service, installation, maintenance, training, marketing, and retro-fitting systems globally.

Vice Chair, Tolling, Ernest Tollerson. Tollerson is the director of policy and media relations at MTA. Tollerson joined the MTA in January 2007. Previously, he handled research projects for the Partnership for New York City, and worked as a reporter and editor for a number of newspapers including New York Newsday, the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

About the Smart Card Alliance

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.

Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.

Contact:
Deb Montner
Montner & Associates
203-226-9290
dmontner@montner.com