Multicard, a leading supplier of credential solutions, identity management, and system integration services and a business unit of Identive Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:INVE) (Frankfurt:INV), announced today that it is partnering with the Dutch financial services company Rabobank and the Royal Dutch Hockey Federation (KNHB) to kick off the first consumer campaign promoting its Cashless Betalen™ mobile payment solution. The organizations will demonstrate and market the solution at the prestigious international hockey tournament known as the Rabo FIH Champions Trophy, which takes place from June 25 through July 3 at the Wagener Stadium in Amsterdam.
With more than 200,000 members, Holland’s 250 hockey clubs are target customers for Multicard’s Cashless Betalen solution, as are football clubs and other social communities where there are frequent group activities paid for with shared funds. At Rabobank’s booth at the Champions Trophy, visitors will get a chance to see how the use of the Cashless Betalen mobile payment solution could benefit their organizations via live demonstrations, promotional films and materials, and for club leaders, hands-on trials. Multicard will provide near field communications (NFC) stickers to 1,000 club presidents and other executives, which can be affixed to their smart phones to turn the devices into digital wallets. The wallets are preloaded with a small amount of funds courtesy of Rabobank, which the club leaders can then spend to purchase refreshments at the tournament, simply by touching their phones to a point of sale reader at checkout.
Pieter Kooistra, managing director of Multicard Netherlands, explained, “Sports clubs and other groups are an important part of social activity in Holland, and typically the whole team will go somewhere for drinks and food after a practice or match – much like in the U.S., where a neighborhood baseball team will go out for pizza after the game. Rather than have one person pay for everything and then submit the receipt to the club for reimbursement, with Cashless Betalen the sports club can have its own bank account and authorized representatives can access, top up or check the balance of club funds using their NFC-enabled phones. Our ongoing interaction with users also allows us to gain incremental sales as clubs purchase NFC stickers or wristbands for all their members, local merchants sponsor clubs, etc.”
Multicard, Rabobank and the KNHB are kicking off two promotional packages for hockey clubs at the Champions Trophy. Both packages include a digital wallet from Rabobank and Multicard’s Cashless Betalen solution, which provides the secure interface to the digital wallet. Cashless Betalen users will receive stickers, wristbands or key fobs from Multicard that incorporate an NFC chip programmed with a unique digital wallet account number. Multicard further provides ongoing management of the digital wallet accounts, beginning with activation of accounts when users log on to Multicard’s secure web portal. The same web portal is used to deposit or transfer funds, monitor transactions and check account balances. Rabobank’s innovative digital wallet platform is highly secure and conforms to all banking regulatory requirements for transactions, settlement and balance limits.
“Mobile payments are fast, easy and secure and Multicard’s Cashless Betalen solution is an important component of the roll-out of our digital wallet platform in The Netherlands,” stated Gertjan Rösken, business development manager for Rabobank. “In a recent Rabobank survey of target groups, 65% of hockey clubs would like to implement a cashless payment solution and 45% would like to do so right away. Our joint sponsorship of the Rabo FIH Champions Trophy is a unique opportunity to build awareness and demonstrate the convenience and security of mobile payments for the consumer market.”
Within this cashless payment project, NXP Semiconductors supported the security scheme using its secure DESFire EV1 contactless microcontroller.