On Trial at the Summer Olympic Games: Smart Cards

Visa International has teamed up with the three largest banks in the southeastern United States to offer stored-value cards to the four million visitors and residents expected to attend the Olympics in Atlanta. Stored-value cards (or cash cards) transfer stored, digital money from the card to merchants' special terminals. Although 350 million smart cards are in use around the world, few Americans have ever used one. The paper considers how the future of the smart card in the US is riding on this high-profile trial at the Olympics.