The Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL) is releasing a new contactless card based on the EMV White Label standard. The SL is the Swedish public transportation authority, and the organization is hoping that the card will make transit more convenient for the country’s commuters.
The card itself comes courtesy of IDEMIA, and is being billed as the first EMV White Label card designed specifically for public transportation. With it, Swedish riders will be able to tap to pay at the SL’s existing terminals, which in turn will allow them to pass through gates and board vehicles more quickly. The system is designed to support EMV open-loop payments, while the first cards are expected to debut sometime in the fall of 2021.
“We’re immensely proud to be the first ever EMV White Label card provider for Public Transport in Sweden,” said IDEMIA Financial Institutions EVP Amanda Gourbault. “We have no doubt our new cards will make life easier for everyone, commuters and transport authorities alike.”
The White Label standard is a set of open standards set up to promote interoperability in the contactless payments industry. It is backed by the appropriately named White Label Alliance, and serves as a set of guidelines that developers can follow to ensure that their contactless solutions are compatible with other EMV products.
The Alliance’s broader goal is to boost contactless adoption rates, insofar as the organization believes that people will be more likely to use contactless payment solutions if they know those solutions will be widely accepted. IDEMIA founded the Alliance alongside G+D Mobile Security back in June of 2019.
Though it is not a card, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority recently deployed NXP’s MIFARE 2GO system to allow DC area riders to use their smartphones to make contactless transit payments through Google Pay. IDEMIA also launched a contactless payment card in Japan earlier this month.
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