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As we discussed in our last issue, there are a number of difficulties which are impeding the satisfactory introduction of EFTPOS, not the least of which seems to be a remarkable slowness on the part of retailers and bankers to come to any agreement. In this article Tim Kingaby is suggesting the Smartcard as a simpler and more satisfactory alternative to EFTPOS. The Smartcard looks like an ordinary credit card, but in effect it is a tiny computer, with its own memory, which records the transactions for which it is used. Tim Kingaby claims that it offers the maximum of flexibility together with virtually complete security. Noting that the banks are heavily committed to their plans for the 1986 EFTPOS experiment, he wonders whether they have made the right choice. In a further article he will look at ATM networks and Customer Activated Transactions Systems.

The first part of this article, published in our March/April issue, looked at the Smartcard — a computerised creditcard which the author suggests would be a considerably less complex and more secure method of cashless payment than EFTPOS. In this second article, Tim Kingaby looks briefly at EFTPOS systems in Belgium and the States, where the banks are in the unusual position of being forced to foot the bill. He then goes on to suggest two further, and cheaper, alternatives to EFTPOS: an extensive network of ATMs in all sorts of consumer‐convenient locations; and the customer activated transaction (CAT) system in America.