11 Facts About Mondex

Mondex was a smart card electronic cash system, implemented as a stored-value card and owned by Mastercard.

Mondex allowed users to use its electronic card as they would with cash, enabling peer-to-peer offline transfers between cards, which did not need any authorization, via Mondex ATMs, computer card readers, personal 'wallets' and specialized telephones.

Mondex allowed for a full-card locking mechanism, usage with multiple currencies within a single card, and a certain degree of user anonymity.

Mondex cards were at some point common place in many universities at a certain point as they were mostly trialed there, and were issued as dual-application cards - like combo credit cards, ID cards, and loyalty membership cards.

Mondex scheme was invented in 1990 by Tim Jones and Graham Higgins of NatWest in the United Kingdom.

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From that point on, Mondex International managed the Mondex brand, oversaw its franchisees and signed contracts with new ones around the globe.

Mondex launched in a number of markets during the 1990s, expanding from the original trial in Swindon to Hong Kong, New York and Guelph, Canada.

Mondex is an open-loop implementation of the electronic cash scheme - instead of transactions occurring only in one way, money can be transferred between any Mondex user.

Transfer of funds using the Mondex card operated through a Mondex-enabled device, and in principle occurred between 2 cards - whether it was 2 customers or a customer and a seller.

Mondex cards included a locking mechanism - a PIN number would be chosen and inserted to lock the card, and before operating the card again the cardholder had to insert his PIN number and unlock it.

In some instances, the Mondex card was issued alongside a regular credit card, allowing transactions to be made either with money stored in the Mondex wallet or via the traditional credit card.