As more transit agencies introduce open-loop fare payments, interest is starting to grow in use of white-label EMV cards that agencies can issue in place of proprietary closed-loop cards for riders who don’t have bank cards or don’t want to use them to pay fares.
Besides major transit authorities in New York and Stockholm, which have launched white-label EMV in recent weeks, Mobility Payments has learned that Transport for London and Sydney’s Transport for New South Wales are considering the technology for their high-profile closed-loop cards, Oyster and Opal. (See table on this page).
In addition, officials in the largest state in the U.S., California, which are seeking to help the state’s 300-plus transit agencies move to open-loop payments over the next few years, are weighing white-label EMV cards as an alternative for the state’s large unbanked and underbanked populations or other customers without bank cards.
