Money may still tinkle, but on a telephone. In 21st Century Singapore money will be stored in electronic pulses in chips and be transacted through air waves, using the same wireless application protocol (WAP) technology now used in mobile telephones. The plans are still nascent, but the scheme is scarcely impossible in a country that already relies a great deal on chip-guided transactions, through smart cards. A Network for Electronic Transfers (NETs) was set up by five local Singapore banks in 1986, to enable cardholders to pay for purchases via direct debits from their bank accounts.

Today smart cardholders in Singapore use the NETs system to shop at select merchant outlets, dine at restaurants, make telephone calls from public booths or electronic road toll payments.

Electronic money may not turn into an Asian trend just yet, but smart cards already have. Three years ago 197 million smart cards were in circulation in the Asia-Pacific, making the region the second-largest smart card market after Europe. India, riding high on its information technology (IT) revolution, somehow did not land on that map. The IDBI has launched its smart card only recently, but intelligent plastics, capable of storing and manipulating data, have not quite arrived.

Now that Visa International plans to migrate all its cards towards chip technology by 2006, will the smart card finally make a debut on Indian soil?

``Currently, Visa does not have a smart card offering in India but has been in touch with various vendors, organisations and the Reserve Bank of India to develop a general-purpose and open-standard smart card programmes,'' is the cautious response of Visa International's executive vice-president South East Asia and Greater China, Mr James Murray.

He admits that there had been some smart card pilot projects in India, but those were for closed loop and specific applications. Smart cards are not meant to be exclusive. Smart cards are usually ubiquitous, used simultaneously at railway stations, restaurants or telephone booths. In Hong Kong smart cards serve as tickets for the mass transit system and to access commercial or residential buildings.

Plastics with silicon minds are safer than those dependent on magnetic stripes. Chip-embedded cards can also do a lot more than plain Jane credit, debit or stored-value cards. As a matter of fact a smart cards can be all those things (a credit card, a debit card or an electronic purse) and lots more. It can in addition be a railway pass, a seasonal ticket for the subway or a telephone card.

``A smart card is an all-purpose payment card that will find its use from payment of railway tickets to payment at restaurants,'' Mr Murray says. He says Visa International was ``actively working'' with banks, retailers and vendors on cost-effective and operationally-efficient programmes. A smart card is smart when in the company of smart card readers. Mr Murray acknowledges that the first step would be to ``establish a global foundation with recommended milestones for inter-operability of smart card programmes.'' Card-accepting devices would also need electronic cardholder verification capabilities.

``With the earliest milestones coming into effect in 2001, the Visa Smart Path chip migration plan is already in full swing globally,'' says he. To migrate all its cards to chip technology by 2006, Visa International would first have to build a payment infrastructure that allows smart cards international interoperability.

First the new smart card programmes and then the existing ones would have to have international interoperability. Finally the new magnetic stripe terminals would have to be upgraded to smart card and PIN (personal identification number) support.

Banks-Visa is associated with 14 in India-are expected to veer towards chip technology driven by their own compulsions. Banks developing their Internet presence will plump for smart cards to be able to offer customers a secure and portable access to online banking.

Telecommunications operators, software companies, retailers and mass transit operators are already eyeing payment services for entirely business reasons.

Extending business to multi-functional cards justify investments in smart cards.

Some impetus for the shift to chip-embedded cards should come from Indian cardholders, who have just about begun to discover the charms of the electronic purse. A growing demand for the electronic purse or stored-value cards (like the Petrocard) will also prompt banks to adopt the chip. The pre-paid or stored value cards have embedded chips. ``For both the real and virtual world, a multi-functional smart card combining a credit, debit and electronic purse functionality is one of the most powerful relationship tools a financial institution can offer its customers,'' says Mr Murray.

``Visa believes,'' he goes on to say, ``now is the time to begin moving forward on implementing the next-generation payment infrastructure. Smart card technology today has matured to a point where it is both proven and affordable. At the same time e-commerce revenues are growing at a rapid pace. An enhanced smart card infrastructure will help to reduce fraud and lower operating costs and enhance consumer confidence in the safety and security of electronic commerce,'' says he.