Singapore, March 18, 2010–Watchdata, one of the leading innovative data security and smart card technology solutions providers in the world, has won the prestigious Asian Sesames Award with its DBS Live Fresh 3-in-1 Visa credit card entry.

Smart Card Alliance 2010 Payments Summit Highlights

PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., MARCH 1, 2010–Contactless payment is now the de facto standard for U.S. transit fare collection systems, and will likely become a principal market driver for the expansion of bank-issued contactless cards. But that is just one of many factors building interest in the United States around chip cards for payments, according to experts presenting at the Smart Card 3rd Annual Payments Summit. The event was held February 23rd–25th, 2010 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Travelcard in mobile phone affords riders enriched service

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Feb 15, 2010–Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced a new solution enabling commuters to use their mobile phones as e- tickets in MIFARE DESFire* infrastructures. Gemalto achieved the world’s first implementation of a transport application compliant with the DESFire specifications in a SIM or UICC card, and will be presenting this innovation on its booth (8A102).

Aix-En-Provence, France, February 12, 2010–INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, and Neowave, a developer of smart objects–intelligent, portable devices that go beyond smart cards–today announced their partnership to create the Weneo NFC, the industry’s first NFC smart object. Integrating INSIDE’s third-generation MicroRead® NFC solution, the multi-application Weneo NFC smart object creates a link to the Internet for NFC devices, tags and mobile phones for a variety of secure transactions.

First Result of a Partnership with INSIDE Contactless to Transform How People Interact With and Use Their Mobile Devices

Paris, France, Feb. 10, 2010–CONNECTHINGS, a pioneer in providing systems that deliver contextualized services and content based on location and time, today announced the first public demonstration of the Wave-Me™ NFC services platform will take place at the upcoming GSM Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona, Spain February 15-18, 2010. The first result of a partnership with INSIDE Contactless, the Wave-Me NFC services platform is built upon CONNECTHINGS’ AdTag™ server and is designed to give near field communication (NFC) the intelligence it needs to enable a broad range of mobile services beyond payment and transit applications.

Collaboration with U.S. Bank Reinforces HID Global’s Position in the Development of Converged Physical Access and Contactless Payment Solutions

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 28, 2010–HID Global, the trusted source for solutions for the delivery of secure identity, today announced the recognition of its iCLASS® contactless smart card technology as a key component in U.S. Bank’s award-winning PayID card program. The PayID card pilot program, which recently won the 2010 Paybefore Award for Most Innovative Program, included HID Global’s iCLASS application. PayID uses a single, all-purpose card to provide contactless physical access to secure U.S. Bank facilities, along with contactless payments and traditional magnetic stripe purchases.

MicroPass-Based PayID Card from U.S. Bank Wins Most Innovative Prepaid Program Award

Aix-En-Provence, France, January 28, 2010–INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, today announced its MicroPass® 4006 contactless platform is at the heart of U.S. Bank’s PayID Card, this year’s Paybefore Award winner for Most Innovative Prepaid Program. A unique bridge between the open standard payments ecosystem and the community of HID® iClass®-enabled systems deployed globally, the MicroPass 4006 is the only contactless solution available that makes it possible to combine ID and physical/logical access control applications with contactless payment capabilities.

January 22, 2010 – Near Field Communications World summarized the key findings from Discover Financial Services’ trial of a mobile sticker version of its Discover Zip contactless card. Click here for the article.

Smart Card Makers Giesecke & Devrient and Oberthur Technologies, and Chip Providers Infineon and INSIDE Contactless Launch Initiative to Establish Open Standard

Transport Ticketing 2010 Conference & Expo, London, January 26, 2010–Smart card manufacturers Giesecke & Devrient GmbH (G&D) and Oberthur Technologies S.A., and chip suppliers Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) and INSIDE Contactless S.A. today announced they have launched an industry initiative to provide a new security solution for next-generation smart card based public transport applications. The solution will build on an open standard now being implemented by the four partner companies, which will eventually be governed by an independent body. Companies active in the smart card arena–providers of chips, smart cards, application-specific operating software, reader devices and transportation systems–are invited to join the initiative for the advancement of more secure public transportation applications.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Jan 20, 2010–Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced it is providing Setefi (Intesa Sanpaolo), with its Optelio solution for the first large-scale rollout of EMV PayPass contactless payment cards in Italy. Intesa Sanpaolo is among the top banking groups in the Euro Zone and the leading bank in Italy, offering its services to more than 11 million customers. Gemalto supplied technical support during the launching phase and assisted the bank in upgrading its personalization infrastructure. The project, developed in collaboration with MasterCard, will be first deployed in the Milan area and Intesa Sanpaolo plans to extend it nationwide while upgrading the Point of Sale terminal base.