Mondex is an electronic currency system based on Moltos programmable smart-cards. It's designed to be an alternative payment system to credit and charge cards. Unlike credit and charge cards (which are ways of instructing your bank to make transactions on your behalf) - Mondex is an e-cash system. The virtual money is stored in the chip on your card. When you make a payment the money is uploaded from your card.
A Mondex card looks like a regular credit card - however unlike traditional cards, it has a great deal more features hidden within its chip. This chip can store money as well as information about the card's owner.
Mondex would like you to think of their card as a virtual purse - it can store multiple currencies (the current version permits five), as well as additional applications e.g. travel payment or company identification.
My only experience with Mondex was that in the year I left the University of Nottingham, a trial of this system began on campus. Students were encouraged to pay for all goods and services on-campus with their Mondex cards.