ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — PSCU Financial Services, a cardprocessing CUSO for more than 500 credit unions that process cardson the First Data Corp. platform, has announced that it is thefirst CUSO to launch contactless cards for credit and debitplatforms.

PSCU's member-owners can begin offering the new cards, which areavailable with Visa and MasterCard contactless card technology.

The initial market for the innovative cards is smalltransactions at time-sensitive locations such as fast food outlets,convenience stores, gas stations and movie theaters. Withcontactless technology, cardholders and merchants save time sincethe card just needs to be held within two to four inches from theterminal. There is no need to position a card so that the magneticstripe can be read since a computer chip in the card securelycommunicates the necessary information. The card also offers anextra layer of security thanks to its use of dynamic cardverification.