Agency wants EMV-compliant prepaid solution

The U.S. Department of Defense is requesting information on adding payment capabilities to the Common Access Card, according to documents released by the agency.

The idea of adding an electronic purse and transit application to the CAC was brought up at the Smart Card Alliance Conference. The agency is seeking information from vendors on how to add this functionality to the credentials, which could eventually be deployed on PIV credentials throughout government.

“Under this RFI, DOD is exploring options to provide an end-to-end enterprise solution by adding electronic payment functionality to identity cards using commercially-adopted, standards-based systems to enable the CAC/PIV card to act as an open loop, pre-paid, payment card. Further, this payments solution could be federated across the Government and cascade throughout the entire PIV family of cards,” the document states.

The Defense Department wants an application that can work as a prepaid solution, funded from single or multiple sources. “The payment solution must be EMV-compliant on both the contact and contactless interfaces and fully functional at all EMV point of sale terminals or ATMs world-wide, where EMV is adopted,” the document states.

The RFI can be dowloaded here.