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Mondex

Mondex was a smart card-based electronic cash system developed in the early 1990s as a stored-value payment instrument intended to replace physical cash for low-value, peer-to-peer transactions without requiring third-party validation.^[1] The system used tamper-resistant chips embedded in cards, allowing users to load funds from bank accounts via ATMs or other means and then spend them at compatible terminals, vending machines, or even directly between individuals, with transactions being free for users but enabling quick, cashless exchanges.^[2] Invented in 1990 by Tim Jones and Graham Higgins at National Westminster Bank (NatWest) in the United Kingdom, Mondex was launched by NatWest in December 1993 following a 1992 joint venture with Midland Bank to form Mondex UK.^[3]^[1] The system expanded internationally with Mondex Canada established in May 1995 and Mondex USA in April 1997; in 1996, MasterCard acquired a majority stake, and innovations like the Multi Application Operating System (MAOS) were introduced in 1997 to enable multi-application smart cards.^[1] Pilot trials were conducted in locations including Swindon, UK (1995–1998); Guelph, Ontario (1997–1998); and Sherbrooke, Quebec (1999–2001), testing peer-to-peer and merchant transactions but revealing challenges with the closed-loop design incompatible with existing Visa or MasterCard infrastructure.^[3]^[2]^[1] Despite hype as a pathway to a cashless society—with projections of 10 million cardholders by 2000—Mondex failed to achieve widespread adoption due to consumer concerns over security, privacy, no refunds for lost cards, and limited merchant and bank participation.^[2]^[4] The project ended around 2001, though technology elements like the MULTOS platform influenced later MasterCard applications.^[1]

History

Origins and Development

The Mondex system was invented in 1990 by NatWest bankers Graham Higgins and Tim Jones, who sought to address the limitations of traditional payment methods for small-value transactions by developing an electronic alternative to physical cash.^[3] As employees in NatWest's payment services and smart card strategy divisions, Higgins and Jones identified the need for a secure, low-cost mechanism to handle micropayments in everyday commerce, where existing card networks were inefficient due to high fees and network dependencies.^[5] Their concept centered on stored-value smart cards that could facilitate direct electronic transfers, aiming to replicate the simplicity and anonymity of coin and note exchanges.^[6] From the outset, the design emphasized offline, chip-to-chip value transfers to eliminate reliance on central networks or real-time authorization, enabling peer-to-peer exchanges akin to handing over cash without intermediaries.^[6] This approach was intended to support seamless micropayments for goods and services, such as vending machines or small retail purchases, while maintaining tamper-resistant security through embedded chip technology.^[7] NatWest's internal development, conducted in collaboration with technology partners, focused on prototyping the core smart card infrastructure to ensure reliability in unconnected environments.^[3] In 1992, NatWest formed a joint venture called Mondex UK with Midland Bank to advance the system's development and prepare for pilot trials.^[1] By 1993, initial prototyping of the smart card technology had advanced sufficiently for NatWest to file key patents on the system, with Higgins and Jones listed as inventors for innovations in value transfer mechanisms.^[8] That December, NatWest publicly announced the Mondex system through a launch event, marking its first demonstration as a viable electronic cash solution.^[3] Concurrently, planning began for the inaugural UK pilot in Swindon, selected as a representative town to test real-world adoption among consumers and merchants.^[3] These early steps laid the groundwork for subsequent corporate partnerships and global expansion efforts.^[6]

Ownership and Key Milestones

Mondex International was established in July 1996 as an independent payments organization and joint venture in London, England, with 17 financial institutions as initial shareholders, including NatWest Bank, HSBC Holdings, and others such as Midland Bank and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.^[9]^[10] This formation followed the early invention of the Mondex concept by NatWest bankers in 1990, marking a shift toward commercial scaling.^[11] In November 1996, Mastercard International acquired a 51% controlling stake in Mondex International for approximately $150 million, completing the deal in February 1997 and positioning Mastercard to drive global smart card adoption.^[12]^[13] By June 2001, Mastercard assumed full ownership through an agreement with remaining shareholders, acquiring the outstanding shares for a nominal amount amid Mondex's limited market value at the time.^[14]^[15] Key milestones under this evolving ownership included the launch of the initial Swindon trial in July 1995, prior to formal incorporation, which tested the system's viability with around 6,000 participants and 700 retailers.^[16]^[17] The global consortium continued to include 17 financial institutions, enabling broader international franchising and trials across regions like Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States.^[18] By the early 2000s, Mondex reached its peak operational scale with active deployments in over a dozen countries, supported by Mastercard's $150 million-plus investment and partnerships, though adoption varied and ultimately declined.^[19]^[20] Following full acquisition, Mastercard undertook corporate restructuring by integrating Mondex as a subsidiary while retaining its management structure initially, and pursued rebranding efforts, including updating the Mondex logo in 1996 to align with Mastercard's circular design using a blue color scheme instead of the original red.^[21]^[22] These changes aimed to unify branding and leverage Mastercard's global network for electronic purse expansion, though Mondex operations wound down by the mid-2000s.^[23]

System Operation

Core Functionality

Mondex operated as a stored-value electronic cash system built on smart card technology, designed to facilitate direct peer-to-peer transfers of monetary value without requiring intermediaries or online connectivity. This offline architecture allowed transactions to occur instantaneously between two Mondex-enabled cards via a compatible reader or wallet device, mimicking the immediacy and decentralization of physical cash exchanges while leveraging cryptographic protocols to ensure integrity.^[24]^[25] A key feature of the system was its support for multiple currencies stored in dedicated "pockets" on the smart card, with capacity for up to five currencies simultaneously to enable seamless cross-border usability. Each pocket functioned as an independent compartment for a specific currency, allowing users to manage and transfer value in different monetary units without conversion during the transaction process, which supported international deployment in regions like the UK, US, Canada, and Hong Kong.^[24]^[26] The system incorporated anonymity principles akin to physical cash for user transactions, where personal details were not routinely disclosed, though optional audit trails could be enabled for merchant verification and dispute resolution. Each card maintained internal logs of transactions, including value amounts, counterparties, and timestamps, but these were accessible only under specific conditions, such as authorized audits, to balance privacy with accountability.^[24] Overall, Mondex aimed to supplant small-denomination cash for everyday micropayments in retail settings and person-to-person exchanges, reducing the logistical burdens of physical currency handling while opening new revenue streams for financial institutions through value loading and system integration. By focusing on low-value, high-frequency transactions, it sought to integrate into point-of-sale, ATM, and personal device environments as a convenient, secure alternative to coins and notes.^[7]^[24]

Transactions and Value Management

Transactions in the Mondex system were designed to mimic physical cash exchanges, allowing users to transfer stored value directly between smart cards without requiring online verification or network connectivity. Card-to-card transfers occurred through physical contact using devices such as the Mondex Wallet, a handheld reader with dual slots for inserting two cards simultaneously, enabling instantaneous deduction from the payer's card and addition to the recipient's card. This process typically took a few seconds and could also be facilitated via retailer point-of-sale (POS) terminals or compatible telephones, supporting person-to-person payments in everyday scenarios like splitting a bill among friends.^[11]^[27] Topping up value on a Mondex card involved loading funds from a linked bank account, primarily through automated teller machines (ATMs) or specialized Mondex-enabled telephones equipped with card readers. Users would insert their card into the device, enter their personal code number (PCN) for authentication, and specify the amount to transfer, with the process completing offline between the card and the loading device before settlement with the issuing bank. Bank branches also offered manual top-ups at counters, though ATMs were the most common method for convenience, allowing users to maintain their card's balance without visiting a physical location.^[11]^[28] Payment workflows at merchants utilized dedicated POS terminals where the customer's card was inserted alongside the merchant's card, and the transaction amount was entered—often double-keyed for verification on both the electronic cash register and the terminal—to generate receipts for both parties. If sufficient value was available on the customer's card, the transfer executed immediately in approximately three seconds, crediting the merchant's card directly and enabling seamless acceptance for goods or services, including options for splitting larger payments across multiple cards or issuing refunds via reverse value transfers between the cards. These offline capabilities ensured transactions could proceed even in areas without reliable telecommunications infrastructure.^[11]^[27] Value management in Mondex adhered to specific rules to balance usability and risk, with cards capable of storing up to five different currencies and no theoretical maximum balance, though practical limits were imposed, such as a £500 equivalent per card in the UK to align with ATM loading constraints. Users could view their current balance and the last 10 transactions via wallets, ATMs, or telephones, and cards featured no expiration policy for stored value, allowing indefinite retention as long as the card remained functional. For handling lost or stolen cards, users could lock the card remotely using their PCN through a wallet or private telephone to prevent unauthorized transfers; upon reporting the loss to the issuing bank, liability was limited to £50, with potential recovery of remaining value if the card was returned using its unique 16-digit personal identification (PID) number, though unretrieved value was treated as lost like physical cash.^[11]^[29]

Security Mechanisms

Mondex employed public-key cryptography to secure value transfers between cards, enabling encrypted communications and the creation of digital signatures for each transaction and receipt. This approach ensured that only authorized parties could initiate or complete transfers, treating each unit of "Mondex value" as an electronically signed token that verified authenticity and prevented unauthorized spending or duplication.^[24] Access to the Mondex card required a personal identification number (PIN) for activation and transactions, with the system incorporating a lockout mechanism after three incorrect attempts to thwart brute-force attacks. Cardholders could manually lock the card using the PIN for added protection, and in cases of loss or theft, issuers provided remote blocking capabilities by de-linking the card from the user's account upon notification, rendering any stolen value irrecoverable without compromising the system's overall anonymity.^[30]^[31] The system's hardware featured tamper-resistant smart card chips, such as the Hitachi H8/3112, designed to withstand physical attacks and unauthorized probing through advanced encryption and secure memory isolation. These chips contributed to Mondex's certification under the ITSEC framework at Level E6, the highest assurance rating available for smart card systems at the time, which evaluated the purse software's robustness against high-strength attacks while assuming inherent chip tamper resistance. This certification, achieved in 1999 for Mondex Purse Release 2.0 on MULTOS Version 3, involved rigorous formal modeling and verification to confirm the absence of exploitable flaws.^[32]^[33] To support dispute resolution and fraud prevention, Mondex implemented audit features including transaction logs stored on cards—up to 10 entries for consumer cards and 300 for merchant devices—along with pending and exception logs for error recovery. Merchants maintained detailed records of transfers for potential disputes, while central issuers monitored aggregated patterns for anomaly detection without accessing individual transaction details, thereby preserving user anonymity in line with the system's cash-like design. Recovery protocols allowed for value restoration in verified fraud cases through issuer intervention, balanced against the prevention and detection layers to minimize systemic risks.^[24]^[34]

Hardware and Components

Card Types and Features

The standard Mondex consumer card was a smart card equipped with a single-chip microcontroller, such as the Hitachi H8/310 series featuring 8 KB of memory, serving as an electronic purse for storing and transferring digital cash value.^[27] This card adhered to the ISO 7816 standard for integrated circuit cards, measuring approximately 85.6 mm by 53.98 mm with rounded corners, and utilized a contact-based interface where gold-plated contacts on the card's surface connected to readers for power and data exchange, enabling battery-free operation powered electrically through the physical contacts with the reader.^[27] The card supported up to five separate electronic "pockets," each dedicated to holding value in a distinct currency, allowing users to manage multiple currencies on a single device without online verification for peer-to-peer transfers.^[27]^[26] Later implementations of the Mondex card were designed to be EMV-compliant, facilitating secure integration with established payment standards for enhanced interoperability.^[35] Consumer cards typically had a value storage limit of around $2,000 and logged the last 10 transactions for audit purposes, with a personal identification number (PIN) mechanism to lock the card against unauthorized access.^[24]^[27] Multi-application variants of the Mondex card expanded functionality beyond pure electronic cash by incorporating additional services on the same chip, often through platforms like the Multi Application Operating System (MAOS).^[1] These cards integrated Mondex e-purse capabilities with credit or debit functions, such as those from networks like Visa or local debit schemes (e.g., Switch in the UK), as well as loyalty programs for accumulating points or rewards at retailers.^[1] In some deployments, such as trials in Guelph, Ontario, multi-application cards also supported transit payments, enabling fare deductions alongside cash value transfers.^[1] This design allowed issuers to combine Mondex with identification features or other non-financial applications, promoting broader adoption by reducing the need for multiple physical cards.^[1] Merchant and issuer variants featured higher-capacity configurations to accommodate bulk value handling and administrative tasks.^[24] Merchant cards could store significantly larger sums than consumer models—exceeding the $2,000 limit—and maintained records of up to 300 transactions, though with restrictions on outgoing transfers to prevent misuse, requiring periodic deposits back to bank accounts.^[24] Issuer cards, used for value origination and distribution, similarly employed elevated storage limits and enhanced logging to support system-wide management, ensuring secure minting and circulation of electronic value under regulatory oversight.^[26]^[24]

Equipment and Terminals

Balance readers were portable consumer devices designed specifically for verifying the value stored on a Mondex card without performing any transfer. These compact, key fob-sized units featured a slot for card insertion and an LCD screen to display the current balance in real time, providing users with a convenient way to monitor funds on the go.^[36]^[37] Electronic wallets functioned as handheld devices for secure personal management of Mondex cards, enabling peer-to-peer value transfers between individuals. Each wallet included two card slots to facilitate direct exchanges, along with capabilities to lock or unlock cards, change PIN numbers, and retrieve balance and recent transaction details. These units supported offline operations, mimicking the portability and security of physical cash for everyday use.^[36]^[37] Retailer terminals consisted of point-of-sale (POS) systems tailored for merchant environments, allowing seamless acceptance of Mondex payments and integration with existing cash registers. A representative setup involved the VeriFone OMNI 395 terminal combined with the SC 552 smart card reader, which handled debit transactions, balance checks, and support for up to five currencies through ISO 7816-compliant interfaces. These devices processed payments quickly, displaying updated balances immediately and optionally printing receipts via an attached printer to confirm sales.^[38] Issuer equipment encompassed ATM modules and specialized bank terminals for loading value onto Mondex cards, ensuring efficient replenishment from bank accounts or cash deposits. Mondex-enabled ATMs allowed users to transfer funds directly from linked accounts, while dedicated loading machines and bank counter terminals accepted cash inputs, with throughput optimized for high-volume operations in financial institutions. Compatibility across these systems was maintained through standardized interfaces, accommodating regional variations in load limits such as GBP 100 in the UK.^[39]

Deployment and Adoption

International Rollouts and Trials

The international rollout of Mondex began with its inaugural public trial in the United Kingdom, launching on July 5, 1995, in Swindon, Wiltshire, a town of approximately 190,000 residents. This pilot, organized by Mondex International in partnership with NatWest and Midland Banks, aimed to test the system's viability as a cash replacement in everyday transactions, involving adapted ATMs, payphones, and over 700 retailers. By the end of the three-year trial in 1998, around 14,000 cards had been issued, demonstrating technical reliability but limited consumer adoption compared to initial expectations of broader uptake. Plans for national expansion, including rollouts to additional UK cities, were announced for 1998 but ultimately delayed as focus shifted to international markets. In North America, Mondex conducted its largest field trial to date in Guelph, Ontario, starting on February 13, 1997, and running until December 1998, in collaboration with Canadian banks such as the Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The Guelph initiative targeted local residents and merchants to evaluate electronic cash usage in a mid-sized community of about 100,000 people, with cards loadable at ATMs and usable for peer-to-peer transfers, and over 90% of local businesses participating. Concurrently, in the United States, Wells Fargo initiated a smaller-scale employee trial in September 1997, expanding to 550 participants by December, to assess integration with banking infrastructure and prepare for potential wider deployment. A public trial was also conducted in New York City's Upper West Side from late 1997 to early 1999, sponsored by Chase Manhattan Bank (Mondex) and Citibank (Visa Cash), targeting 50,000 consumers and 500 merchants but achieving low adoption.^[40] Mondex expanded into the Asia-Pacific region with a soft launch in Hong Kong on October 17, 1996, led by HongkongBank and Hang Seng Bank, initially at 400 retailers in the Citiplaza shopping center before a full city-wide rollout in November 1997 that reached 1,000 outlets. The system was adapted to support the Hong Kong dollar, emphasizing its multi-currency capabilities for potential regional interoperability. In Taiwan, a pilot project launched in November 1999 through a partnership between Mastercard Taiwan, Acer, and Fubon Bank, focusing on stored-value functionality for consumer payments. Australia saw preparatory pilots in 1997-1998 by banks including Westpac and ANZ, with staff trials testing electronic cash loading and spending, paving the way for a broader 1998 introduction tailored to the Australian dollar. In Europe, beyond the UK, Mondex pursued targeted trials to explore cross-border applications, leveraging its design for seamless multi-currency exchanges. France hosted pilot schemes restricted to testing phases, evaluating integration with local payment networks. Similar limited pilots occurred in Norway, emphasizing secure value transfers in retail settings. In Ireland, a banking alliance announced in April 1997 planned to introduce Mondex for domestic and potential European transactions, highlighting its utility for unreported peer-to-peer exchanges across borders. These efforts underscored Mondex's global consortium model, facilitated by ownership transitions to Mastercard in 1996, which enabled localized adaptations while maintaining core standards.

Shutdowns and Regional Outcomes

In the United Kingdom, the flagship Swindon trial of Mondex, which began in July 1995, was discontinued in July 1998 after three years of operation, having issued approximately 14,000 cards against an initial target of 25,000 in the first year alone.^[20]^[28] Although Mondex continued in limited university environments with around 83,000 cards in circulation by mid-2001, full operations across the country had ceased by 2003.^[41] Canada's Mondex implementation faced similar challenges, with the Guelph trial launching in 1997 but issuing about 20,000 cards, falling short of initial expectations for broader adoption.^[20] The broader Sherbrooke pilot, starting in August 1999 and issuing over 25,000 cards by late 2000, wound down as value issuance halted on May 31, 2001, with redemption available until October 2001; operations ceased entirely by the end of that year pending infrastructure redevelopment.^[20] In Hong Kong, Mondex rolled out in October 1996 with initial enthusiasm in shopping malls and reached 243,000 cards and 1,120 merchants by early 2001, but adoption stagnated thereafter.^[20] Services were suspended at public venues in February 2002, aligning with a shift toward the more successful Octopus system, which had gained dominance by 2000.^[42] France's Mondex pilot in Strasbourg, initiated in September 1999 by Crédit Mutuel and issuing 109,000 purses with €225,000 in circulation by April 2001, saw minimal activity with only about 1,500 active purses and one transaction per purse monthly.^[20] Operations closed in November 2002.^[43] Norway's pilots, conducted from 1999 to 2000 by ErgoGroup after acquiring franchise rights in 1998, were terminated without expansion despite positive test results in settings like conferences and universities.^[20] Mondex merged into the Buypass system in 2008. Taiwan's pilot from September 1999 to March 2000 issued around 2,000 cards across 60 merchants but stalled due to regulatory licensing hurdles, with average daily transactions at just USD 563 by the end.^[20] Across these regions, Mondex outcomes were marked by low adoption rates, such as under 10% in Swindon where only 60 weekly users emerged from 33,000 potential shoppers.^[44] User feedback highlighted usability issues, including cumbersome loading processes at ATMs or counters and limited merchant acceptance, which hindered everyday practicality and failed to achieve critical mass.^[1]

Legacy and Impact

Reasons for Limited Success

Several factors contributed to Mondex's inability to achieve widespread adoption as an electronic cash system. Primarily, intense competition from established and emerging payment alternatives undermined its market position. Systems like Visa's Proton electronic purse and traditional debit and credit cards offered greater interoperability and familiarity, capturing a significant share of transactions without requiring new infrastructure. For instance, debit cards handled over 1 trillion euros in transactions across 11 European countries by 2004, far outpacing Mondex's limited rollout.^[28] Additionally, the subsequent rise of contactless cards, such as Hong Kong's Octopus system launched in 1997, and online platforms like PayPal in 1998, provided more convenient alternatives for both physical and digital payments, rendering Mondex's chip-based approach obsolete before it could scale.^[28]^[1] Technical and usability barriers further hampered Mondex's appeal. As a contact-based smart card system, it required physical insertion into specialized readers, which were not compatible with widespread Visa or Mastercard terminals, leading to fragmented acceptance and user inconvenience.^[4] Trials, such as in Swindon, UK, revealed low transaction volumes—only about 14,000 cards issued against an anticipated 25,000—due to the lack of seamless integration with everyday shopping habits.^[28] Moreover, security vulnerabilities in smart card technology, including routine breaches of tamper-resistant features, eroded consumer trust, as highlighted by researchers who noted that "smartcards are broken routinely."^[1] Economic challenges posed significant obstacles for both merchants and consumers. The high costs of installing Mondex-compatible terminals deterred retailers from participating, especially without a critical mass of users to justify the investment; in one trial, merchants cited insufficient customer uptake as a key deterrent.^[4] Consumers faced little incentive to adopt the system, as it provided no clear advantages over cash or cards—no interest on stored value, no refunds for lost or stolen cards, and the risk of uninsured losses if devices malfunctioned offline.^[4]^[28] This created a vicious cycle where low adoption reinforced economic unviability, limiting Mondex to niche pilots rather than broad deployment.^[1] Regulatory and privacy concerns amplified public skepticism toward Mondex. Despite claims of transaction anonymity, the system's design allowed for potential data logging—including 16-digit IDs, dates, and amounts—raising fears of surveillance and centralized control by issuing banks, with critics arguing it was "private but not anonymous."^[24] Regulators expressed uncertainty over private issuance of electronic currency, demanding stronger consumer protections that Mondex struggled to provide, such as guarantees against value loss or universal access for unbanked populations.^[24]^[1] These issues, combined with unproven scalability in handling large-scale offline transactions, prevented regulatory endorsement and fueled consumer resistance in key markets.^[28]

Influence on Modern Payment Systems

Mondex's pioneering implementation of offline micropayments, utilizing stored-value smart cards for direct value transfers without network connectivity, established key concepts that influenced subsequent stored-value card systems and the security foundations of EMV standards. By enabling low-value transactions in real-time through tamper-resistant chips, the system demonstrated the viability of chip-based authentication for micropayments in parallel with the development of EMV's chip-and-PIN protocols in the mid-1990s.^[45] This offline capability addressed limitations in traditional payment infrastructures, paving the way for secure, decentralized value exchange in environments with intermittent connectivity.^[46] The value token mechanism in Mondex, where electronic currency was originated and stored as unforgeable units on secure hardware against central bank reserves, prefigured core elements of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and modern e-wallets. This approach allowed for multicurrency support and peer-to-peer transfers resembling physical cash, informing CBDC designs that prioritize offline functionality and reserve-backed digital tokens.^[26] Modern e-wallets leverage similar secure elements in devices for tokenized value storage and transmission. Lessons from Mondex's offline value storage have informed CBDC explorations, emphasizing tamper-resistant devices to mitigate risks like double-spending while enhancing financial inclusion in low-connectivity settings.^[45] Mondex's emphasis on high-assurance cryptography, including transaction logs and type-specific transfer rules evaluated under the ITSEC framework (a precursor to Common Criteria), provided enduring lessons for security in modern payment protocols. The system achieved certification to ITSEC Level E6—the highest assurance level at the time—highlighting the need for robust on-chip encryption to prevent forgery, influencing the cryptographic standards adopted in smart card technologies and contributing to the evolution of secure protocols in PCI DSS-compliant environments.^[47] These advancements ensured value integrity in offline scenarios, informing contemporary smart card designs that balance usability with fraud resistance. Elements of Mondex's technology persist through the MULTOS platform, a multi-application smart card operating system that remains in use as of 2025, deployed in over 2 billion cards and devices across more than 50 countries for secure applications including payments and identification.^[48] Post-2008 developments in contactless payments by Mastercard advanced NFC adoption, with Mondex's chip-based innovations forming part of the company's broader portfolio during its ownership.^[49] This legacy supported the shift from magnetic stripes to embedded chips in payment ecosystems.^[46]

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[40]
[PDF] CPSS Publications - Survey of Electronic Money Developments
Major firms involved in stored-value card-based products such as VISA, Proton and Mondex are not engaged in any such project in the banking sector. No general ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[41]
Payment in kind | Technology | The Guardian
Mondex, Beenz, PayBox, Splash Plastic and BarterCard are just a handful of the alternative payment methods that have sprung up over the past few years but have ...
[42]
View of Electronic purses: Which way to go? | First Monday
In the UK, Mondex discontinued the Swindon pilot after three years [2]. In the end some 14,000 cardholders [3] were involved (Mondex International, 1998 ...Missing: residents | Show results with:residents
[43]
Visa Cash/Mondex services at LCSD venues to be suspended
Feb 15, 2002 · ... Mondex ... In addition to the 19 venues, the Visa Cash service at Tuen Mun Recreation and Sports Centre will also be discontinued starting ...
[44]
[PDF] Electronic Purses in Euroland: Why do Penetration and Usage ...
launched in Strasbourg by Mondex France, a company 51%-owned by Crédit ... ZDNet France, November 12, 2002 <http://news.zdnet.fr/story/0,,t118-s2125770 ...
[45]
Plastic, not chips - Forbes
Jul 20, 1998 · Mondex, the London-based subsidiary of MasterCard International, pumped a lot of money and effort into its two trials–one in Guelph, the other ...
[46]
[PDF] Project Polaris: Handbook for offline payments with CBDC
May 1, 2023 · An offline payment with CBDC is defined as a transfer of retail CBDC value between devices that does not require connection to any ledger system ...Missing: mimic | Show results with:mimic
[47]
Technology Solutions to Support Central Bank Digital Currency with ...
Aug 7, 2025 · Historical examples include the Mondex project (UK 1995), which was technically sound but failed due to low merchant adoption and limited ...
[48]
MASTERCARD INCORPORATED - SEC.gov
The Mondex electronic cash program, a chip-based, stored value payment application, allows monetary value to be stored in an electronic “purse” directly on ...<|separator|>