Jetco, the largest automatic teller machine (ATM) network in Hong Kong, has become the latest partner to Prime Visa Cash, the stored value smart card launched by Bank of China, Standard Chartered Bank and Visa International. The network will participate in the second stage of Prime Visa Cash when the smart card moves from being a disposable card to a re-loadable one later this year. 'Our ATMs will be used to upload funds from bank accounts onto the smart cards,' Ernesto Ng, director and general manager of Jetco, said. He said some of its 46 member banks had been studying alternative electronic payment systems that would supplement cash. Jetco's entry sharpens the rivalry between Prime Visa Cash and the Hongkong Bank-led Mondex, which would rely on its ETC network for re-loading funds. Mondex, a re-loadable stored value card that allows inter-person fund transfers, will be launched later this year in two shopping malls by the Hongkong Bank group. The two products are expected to compete fiercely for market share in this new chip card technology. Hang Seng Bank credit card chief William Leung said: 'The more the public is exposed to the idea of a stored value card, the better.'
