Kam: Over 600 thousand. Currently, 19 Hong Kong banks offer the service.

We have two types of cards: one is a personalized card which has the customer's name and information printed on the card, the other one is an anonymous card. But either of these cards can be linked to both AAVS and the rewards scheme, and we encourage people to do so no matter what kind of card they have.

We do have some cards--like student cards--that need to be personalized. The way we collect and manage information must follow the Hong Kong Privacy Ordinance.

CWHK: Do you have any conflicts between your cards and other cards, like office access-control cards?

Kam: Yes, sometimes that happens--my own building access-control card conflicts with the Octopus. We use the ISO 14443 standard, but even so, we can have problems if other cards use similar types of technology.