Plastic cards-proximity type for limited use

Financial markets are driving the use of integrated circuits in plastic cards of the chip variety. Unfortunately, current applicable international standards were developed for plastic cards in the credit industry, containing contactless integrated circuits. and include definitions for the following,

1. physical dimensions the same as plastic cards used in credit environs (ISO/IEC 7810);
2. physical characteristics, such as tear resistance, again the same as the credit cards (ISO?IEC 7810);
3. rigid security protocols (ISO/IEC 14443);
4. large data storage size (ISO/IEC 14443);
5. many data records (ISO/IEC 14443).

The characteristics are not required for limited use plastic card applications. The complexity required to meet the current standards limits the manufacture of reducing the cost of the integrated circuit chips. Furthermore, compliance with the existing plastic card standards will not allow the flexibility of using substrates such as paper or modifying the plastic card dimensions, such as thickness, to further reduce plastic card material or production costs. In response to these concerns, the industry requested the Contactless IC Plastic Cards Subgroup (B10.5) of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) to review and update the applicable standards.