Contractor for Fast-Track Open-Loop Procurement in Barcelona Gets Pressure over Key Technology Supplier

Ignasi Ruiz

The main contractor for Barcelona’s open-loop payments project has chosen a local company over Brazil-based Planeta Informática to implement a key technology for the rollout, after apparently receiving pressure to hire a local subcontractor, sources told Mobility Payments.

The project is noteworthy because transit authority ATM Barcelona–which oversees metro, train, bus and tram networks in and around Spain’s second largest city–seeks to completely roll out open-loop technology at an expedited pace of fewer than 18 months. It also has a budget of only €4 million (US$4.4 million) to spend. The agency plans to accomplish the fast-tracked, low-cost rollout by procuring technology that plugs EMV-enabled secure-access modules, or SAMs, into more than 15,000 existing closed-loop payments terminals.

SAMs are microprocessor chips, usually in a smart card format, that plug into card readers and perform cryptographic operations for card authentication. 

Specially developed SAMs can add EMV contactless payments functionality to a legacy closed-loop terminal without the need to replace the validator or application software. The highest profile project to date using EMV-enabled SAMs was launched recently by Vancouver transit authority TransLink, which added acceptance for domestic debit brand Interac to around 5,000 terminals that already accepted the agency’s closed-loop card, Compass, and open-loop credit cards.

As Mobility Payments reported last August, the ATM Barcelona RFP, which had a submission window for bids of only two to three weeks, attracted only one bidder, Comercia Global Payments. The company is a joint venture between U.S.-based Global Payments and large Spanish retail bank CaixaBank.

Comercia’s winning bid came in at €3.28 million (US$3.6 million), Mobility Payments has learned, under the €4 million Covid relief grant that ATM is using for the project.

Planeta Informática–which developed secure-access module technology for enabling open-loop payments on closed-loop terminals in collaboration with Visa around four years ago–was expected to supply the 15,500 SAMs for the Barcelona project. That seemed to be confirmed in a tender document from last year obtained by Mobility Payments. In the document, Comercia said it “envisaged”  that one of its subcontractors on the project would be Planeta.

But then Comercia hired Barcelona-based Smarting Engineering to supply the SAMs, even though Planeta appears to have more experience developing and supplying EMV-enabled SAMs. A source said pressure was brought to bear on Comercia to hire a local company. It’s not clear whether the RFP urged the hiring of local contractors and subcontractors.

When asked, Artur Costa, head of Planeta, would only say that “we understand the preference was given to a local company,” he told Mobility Payments. “Although we supported Comercia to prepare the SAM part of the (bid) proposal, the decision to change was taken after proposal presentation.” 

Costa declined to comment further, except to add that another possible factor complicating the award of the subcontract was the fact that any agreement would likely call for Planeta to share IP. That is a “very complex” issue for the company and would be “risky,” he said.

Representatives of Comercia did not respond to questions from Mobility Payment when asked about why Smarting was chosen to supply the SAMs and whether it has experience supporting EMV open-loop fare payments projects. Smarting founder Dani Fernandez would only say that his company has a unit that has specialized in development of SAMs for 10 years. He said information related to other questions were too sensitive given the current stage of the project. He did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, representatives of ATM Barcelona didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether the agency pressured Comercia to hire a local subcontractor for the SAMs, and whether the project, in general, was still on track for the rollout to be complete by the end of this year.

Smarting on its website said it can supply SAMs supporting closed-loop fare card technology Mifare DESFire and Cipurse. The company is believed to have supplied SAMs to ATM Barcelona for the agency’s T-Mobility closed-loop card program.

Smarting was also mentioned in the Comercia tender document along with Planeta and NTT Data Spain as potential subcontractors, which means Smarting may have been set to supply other technology rather than SAMs. Besides SAMs, Smarting says on its site that it offers such fare-payments products as virtualized transit cards for mobile phones and technology to enable users to top up cards on Android NFC devices.

But Smarting is not believed to have worked on any other projects that call for developing and installing certified EMV-enabled SAMs that could support one or more open-loop payments schemes.

Besides the TransLink project in Vancouver, among Planeta’s projects are implementing EMV-enabled SAMs for the three-line Rio de Janeiro Metro in 2019. It is also working as a subcontractor to install SAMs in nearly 17,000 new validators for buses and trams in Rio de Janeiro city that could accept closed-loop cards supporting either Cipurse or Calypso technology, the vendor said. The validators might later support open loop, as well.

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