Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) has signed a contract with the Bucharest Transport Company (STB), the operator of the overground public transport, to expand the smart contactless payment system to all buses, trams and trolleybuses in the city. Currently, this solution is available only on STB’s new Otokar and Mercedes Hibrid buses.

“The contactless payment solution for travel developed by Banca Comerciala Romana, together with its partner S&T, will be implemented, in no more than six months, in all public transport means of STB,” BCR said in a press release.

BCR’s contactless solution allows the use of a transport or bank card, as well as a smartphone or smartwatch, to pay for travel. For identification, the card readers have the Mastercard and Visa logos displayed at the bottom of the screen.

“Extending the solution to the entire STB fleet will be done by replacing the old card readers. It is the first solution in Romania that uses state-of-the-art contactless readers installed on vehicles and that allows the use of both Mifare contactless transport cards and Mastercard and Visa bank cards,” said Ciprian Nicolae, Card Acceptance Department, BCR.

The system implemented by BCR was built based on the operating architecture regulated by Mastercard and VISA so that any card issued anywhere in the world under the two organizations can be used to pay for travel.

Besides Bucharest, BCR introduced the contactless payment solution in 15 other cities in Romania, namely Sibiu, Oradea, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Buzău, Timișoara, Reșița, Ploiești, Pitești, Baia-Mare, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, Sighișoara, Craiova, Botoșani and Arad. Also, in partnership with Metrorex, BCR has implemented a similar system in all subway stations in Bucharest.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: BCR)