Smart Card Talk

January 2007 • Volume 12 Number 1

Member News

Gemalto First to Achieve Interac Certification for Secure Banking in Canada
Gemalto certified to provide secure smart banking cards for use with Canada’s debit and Automated Banking Machine network

Toronto, Ontario, January 24, 2007–Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, today announced that its personalization center outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada is the first to achieve smart banking card certification from Interac, Canada’s debit and Automated Banking Machine (ABM) network. Gemalto adds this to existing ISO, MasterCard and Visa certifications, demonstrating its commitment to aid Canadian financial institutions overcome credit and debit card fraud. This will be accomplished by converting an estimated 100 million magnetic stripe payment cards to microprocessor-based smart cards. [ read the full release ]

Gilles Lisimaque Elected to ID Technology Partners, Inc. Board of Directors

NORTH POTOMAC, MD, (BUSINESS WIRE), January 22, 2007–Identification Technology Partners, Inc. (IDTP) announced that Gilles Lisimaque was elected to the company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Lisimaque joined IDTP as a partner in January 2005. He actively represents IDTP clients in US and International standards bodies, as well as provides technical and business guidance in the design and application of smart-cards and identity credentialing systems. [ read the full release ]

INSIDE Launches High Performance MicroPass® L4-2G Contactless Platform
Next-Generation Intelligent Hardware Platform Provides Greater Flexibility with Multi-Payment Brand, Multi-Application Support

Aix en Provence, France, January 22, 2007–INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open standard contactless chip technologies, today announced MicroPass L4-2G, the next generation release of the industry-leading intelligent hardware platform for contactless bank card payments. [ read the full release ]

Smart Card Alliance Brings Advances in Chip Technology to RSA Conference 2007 with Tutorial, Pavilion and Panel

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ, January 18, 2007–Smart cards are increasingly favored by information technology (IT) professionals to protect company information, the privacy of customer records, and to achieve regulatory compliance. The Smart Card Alliance will explain why at a tutorial at RSA Conference 2007 on Monday, February 5th from 9:00am–3:30pm. RSA attendees will also want to add to their itineraries a stop at booth 1742, the Smart Card Pavilion–one of the highlights of last year’s event–and the panel discussion on government identity credentialing projects around the world, featuring government and privacy experts including Executive Director Randy Vanderhoof. [ read the full release ]

MBF Cards Signs Agreement to Expand JCB Card Acceptance in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR AND TOKYO, January 17, 2007–JCB, a major global payment brand, and JCB International, JCB’s international subsidiary, and MBF Cards (M’sia) Sdn Bhd (MBF Cards), Malaysia’s largest non-bank backed credit card company, announced today an agreement to expand JCB card acceptance in Malaysia. MBF Cards will start opening its merchant network to JCB this month including new merchant acquisitions, targeting to sign-on approximately 10,000 JCB merchants within the first 12 months. This will be derived from its existing 26,000 merchants and new merchant acquisitions, further cementing the card issuers’ reputation as one with the largest network and merchants. With this arrangement, JCB merchants in Malaysia will have doubled in a few years, significantly increasing the level of convenience for JCB cardmembers. [ read the full release ]

Contactless Technology Standards Headed Towards Double-Digit Growth
58% retail respondents from Major Global Markets indicate contactless adoption within the next two years. ROI and measuring contactless results remain an opportunity for retailers.

BOSTON, MA, January 10, 2007–Contactless payment systems are fast approaching the tipping point of adoption within retail. After numerous pilots and deployments in the last three years, the continued pressure to improve the customer shopping experience is prompting retailers to adopt this technology, says a new Aberdeen report on contactless payment systems, “Retail Contactless Payment Systems: Improving Customer Retention & Loyalty”. [ read the full release ]

INSIDE Unveils Contactless Consumer Electronics Vision at CES
Multiple Initiatives Supporting NFC on Mobile Phones, Contactless Bank Cards, Smart Posters, and M-2-M Connectivity between Cameras, TV Screens, and other Consumer Electronic Devices to be Discussed at CES

Las Vegas, Nevada, January 8, 2007–INSIDE Contactless, a world leader of contactless semiconductor chips, today unveiled its consumer electronics vision in the NFC Forum at CES, in the Sands Convention Center. [ read the full release ]

Giesecke & Devrient Supplies Electronic Passports for Latvia
Over one million new documents to be produced by end of 2011

Munich, January 5, 2007–Munich-based technology group Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has been awarded a contract by the Latvian government to produce 1.1 million electronic passports (e-passports) over the next five years. G&D will also supply all the necessary systems for data capture and processing, personalization, and issuing of the documents. The first electronic passports will be issued to the citizens of Latvia in the third quarter of 2007. [ read the full release ]