Rio de Janeiro sports a wearable contactless payment solution

In partnership with RioCard, Brazil’s smart card system for transportation in the state of Rio de Janeiro, NXP Semiconductors has announced the launch of a contactless wearable – adding a new form factor to RioCard’s NXP MIFARE contactless fare collection and payment solutions.

With Brazil amidst hosting several regional and international events, the RioCard multimodal, contactless wearable is an important milestone that introduces a new model of transportation that simplifies payment, enables higher efficiency across all different transportation modes (buses, ferries, metro and train) and gives people the freedom to choose between modes of traveling. This technology will be made available to more than ten million local and foreign commuters in Rio, the second largest city in Brazil.

“The new RioCard wearable, powered by NXP, shows our commitment to creating a better, faster and more secure travel experience to all of Rio de Janeiro’s population and visitors,” said Mr. Cassiano Rusycky, RioCard Executive Director. “Continuous success stories based on NXP contactless technology were the motivation behind this implementation, which creates a technological heritage focused on simplifying access to public transportation and bringing more satisfaction to the general population.”

The initial rollout of the waterproof wearable, powered by NXP’s MIFARE contactless ICs, offer security and convenience to RioCard fare collection operations. NXP’s wearable solutions offer true convergence across different payment modes with a mature EMVCo certified platform, with approved open payment applications (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover) and full access to NXP’s MIFARE contactless ICs.

“At NXP, we always strive for technological leadership. This partnership underscores our vision to deliver secure connected payment experiences to cities around the world,” said Suresh Palliparambil, America’s Head of payments and identification for NXP Semiconductors. “A wearable bracelet as an alternate to a card form-factor allows faster throughput and offers public commuters a whole new level of smart, sheer convenience.”

NXP’s MIFARE contactless ICs has been in use in RioCard since 2004 and powers all contactless devices being used and deployed in the RioCard transportation system, providing security and convenience to millions of passengers.