Manager.One embeds the Navigo pass on its payment card

Manager.One, a banking platform dedicated to very small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs, has just enhanced the functionalities of its payment card with a new offer: the Navigo Pass.

THE FACTS

• The Ile-de-France Mobilités region, Bpifrance and Manager.one have signed a partnership to enable the online bank to integrate Calypso technology into its payment card.

• This partnership has enabled the Paris-based start-up SaGa Group, publisher of the Manager.one banking solution, to receive €210,000 in funding to develop the first Visa payment card to include a transport ticket.

• SaGa Group's card will coexist with various protocols, including the international Calypso protocol for contactless validation of the Navigo pass.

• Manager.One's bank cards are therefore able to retain their role as a means of daily payment while using NFC technology to validate the transport ticket.

• While the development of this new hybrid payment method has been underway since the beginning of the summer, the promise of the first experiments should be kept in the coming months, with Manager.One as the main partner.

CHALLENGES

• Outperforming Open Payment: Open payment consists of paying directly for public transport with a bank card or via a dematerialized card embedded in a smartphone. However, a major constraint is the compatibility of the ticket validation terminals installed in the transport system with the reading of payment cards. Manager.One has therefore turned the problem on its head by incorporating the Navigo pass into its cards.

• Solving a regional obstacle: With several thousand validation terminals for transport tickets, the Ile-de-France region has until now faced a major obstacle to democratizing Open Payment. Transforming all of its terminals would require extensive work, with a minimum cost estimated at €500,000 million.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The link between transit passes and payment methods has been gradually established through local initiatives around the world. For example, in 2011, the Commercial Bank of Romania and the Bucharest Autonomous Transport Network launched Zambet, a debit card that allows cardholders to validate their access to the city's public transport network. The amount of the trip was then deducted directly from the user's bank account.

• In 2018, Open Payment took its first steps in France when the Caisse d'Epargne, Visa, Worldline, Keolis and the Burgundy metropolis allowed travelers on the local public transport network to use their contactless bank card to validate their journey on Dijon's two tramway lines.

• Since then, the number of offers has multiplied. In Brest, Visa or Mastercard holders, regardless of their bank, can use their contactless card to pay for their journey on the city's buses, tramways and cable cars at the validation terminals.

• Since then, smartphones have taken over the role of ticketing and payment devices, and this use of smartphones could be a solution to the problem. However, the democratization of this type of system is still pending, due to technical barriers.