Amdahl Corp on Friday announced that it has formed a new SmartCard Group to supply processing systems in support of the Mondex electronic cash initiative. The announcement comes hot on the heels of news that National Westminister Bank Plc
has established the Mondex effort as an independent payments organization called Mondex International Ltd, owned by 17 major organizations from Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. The Amdahl program will focus on meeting the needs of banks with high volume processing requirements. The new Mondex International is still headquartered in London, and will be responsible for managing future development and international implementation of Mondex. National Westminster Bank Plc has licensed its Mondex intellectual property rights, and has sold the Mondex brand, to Mondex International. Selling shares to member banks will raise about 100m British pounds for Mondex but some 70m pounds is expected to go back to NatWest to reimburse it for its development costs. It retains about 10% and will receive deferred payments based on successes of the product globally. Other members are AT&T Corp and Wells Fargo & Co, who see possibilities for Mondex in making purchases over the Internet and as a form of identification. The other 14 participants are Midland Bank Plc; The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp Ltd; Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce; Royal Bank of Canada; Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd: Commonwealth Bank of Australia; National Australia Bank Ltd; Westpac Banki ng Corp; ANZ Banking Group (New Zealand) Ltd: Bank of New Zealand; Countrywide Banking Corp Ltd; National Bank of New Zealand Ltd; ASB Bank Ltd; and Westpac Banking Corp. AT&T’s is in via a subsidiary of AT&T Universal Card Services.
