US-based optical card systems developer BSI2000 has filed a patent application in SA to protect its MicroBanker2000 optical banking card system developed for the local market.
"We have been working to develop the market for MicroBanker2000 in SA for some time," says BSI2000 CEO Jack Harper.
MicroBanker2000 is optimised to work well in "the intensely harsh environment of rural SA", says Harper.
"MicroBanker2000 is designed to inexpensively operate effectively completely offline - with no telecommunications required at all. We have filed a comprehensive patent application with numerous claims to protect the technology and operating methodologies that we have developed.
"We completed a technology demonstration of MicroBanker2000 in the remote Limpopo province, and our intent is to close a teaming agreement with a South African bank."
The company has been seeking an exclusive partnership with a South African bank since it first launched the joint venture with Mudengu Resources Holdings last year, aimed at establishing a banking system to serve rural South African societies that are cash-only economies.
"Our South African joint venture company, Vhuthu Investments, which is 48% owned by BSI2000, has co-marketing letters of intent in place with a number of large South African black churches that have millions of members."
The companies said at the time the venture was launched that they would work closely with the two million-member United African Apostolic Church.
Optical cards look like standard bank cards, but they hold up to 4MB of updateable digital information.
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