MasterCard Ramps Up PayPass

New York City, Ruth Ann Marshall, a top executive at MasterCard, revealed plans to incorporate 4 million contactless Paypass cards into circulation by the end of the year. The new cards would include radio-frequency chips that allow users to merely wave their cards at a reader to initiate a transaction. The hybrid cards are also work like traditional credit cards.

This announcement comes amid a flurry of news from the world’s second-leading credit-card corporation. Last week, MasterCard stated its intent to go public in early 2005. Today, Marshall also shared plans that would pair MasterCard with the cell phone industry, making mobile phones into “a high-powered payment and sales device.”