While the trend today is for more transit agencies to introduce open-loop fare payments, closed-loop cards, either in physical form or dematerialized on smartphones and wearables, will be with us for many years to come–though perhaps in a reduced role. That’s according to a recent panel discussion at the Mobility Payments Asia Pacific 2021 conference.
Transit authorities and operators will need to continue to serve their customers who don’t have bank cards or don’t want to use them to pay fares. That includes the unbanked, children and people who want to remain completely anonymous.
“I think closed loop will decline, the use of closed-loop cards, whether dematerialized or physical, but I think there’ll be use cases that will persist,” said industry veteran Cliff Hunter, head of sales, transport and ticketing for HID Global, a maker of ticketing and card readers.
