London, United Kingdom – TranSys, the consortium delivering the Oyster smartcard on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), has issued the first license for Oyster to Barclaycard. The license gives Barclaycard exclusive rights to place Oyster onto its Visa credit cards for three years. The first cards to include Oyster will be trialled in London in early 2007.

The agreement marks the intention of the TranSys consortium to license Oyster to selective third parties in order to maximise access to the ease and convenience Oyster offers to regular travellers in London.

‘Oyster has become an international standard for smartcard ticketing and, with six million adult cards issued since its launch just three years ago, it is by far the largest automated fare collection system in the Europe. When single and return tickets on national rail in London match the zonal approach from January 2007, millions more Londoners will be able to use Oyster to pay for travel. Licensing agreements, such as the one we have signed with Barclaycard, will enable us to bring the convenience and flexibility of Oyster to Londoners in innovative ways which match their lifestyles,’ said TranSys Chief Executive, John Stout.

TranSys has been in discussions with a number of third parties regarding the licensing of Oyster, including mobile phone and watch manufacturers.

‘We chose to award our first license to Barclaycard because we believed that their proposal offered a long term vision which could bring additional benefits to Oyster users,’ continued John Stout Chief Executive Officer of TranSys.

The agreement with Barclaycard will see Oyster included for the first time on a dual interface chip. The contact interface will manage Barclaycard payments while the contactless interface will have two separate and distinct functions; Oyster, and a low value, contactless payment capability, which is being trialed by Visa.

Barclaycard are delighted to have been awarded the first license from TranSys. Antony Jenkins, Barclaycard’s Chief Executive said: ‘London has seen huge success with the Oyster card from TranSys and TfL – in much the same way as cards have transformed many other consumer payments: it’s difficult to imagine how we managed beforehand. Putting Oyster and Barclaycard together makes life even easier for Londoners and takes our customers an important step closer to fully contactless card payments elsewhere.’