Executive Director’s Letter

Dear members and friends of the Alliance,

In my December 2009 letter, I tried to summarize what I considered some of the major milestones and accomplishments from the past year based on predictions I made at the start of 2009. As promised, I will again look through my magic “rose-colored” lens into 2010–a year that is expected to be very active and transformational.

I will begin my look forward with payments and with certainly one of my boldest predictions ever–that EMV will finally be coming to the U.S. payments industry. The exact form and extent of EMV in the U.S. are harder to predict–certainly not a full chip and PIN EMV deployment as implemented in the U.K or Canada. At a minimum, I believe that we will see cards issued with a contact or dual-interface chip that will work as an EMV chip card in regions outside of the continental U.S.A. This prediction is “more out on a limb” than most observers and analysts have been willing to go, so I invite them to join me on the EMV bandwagon. I predict that shipments of more new generation contactless bank cards and merchant terminals with EMV-compatible features will become the standard practice in the year ahead. I also expect that the cost estimates for moving the entire U.S. market (issuers, processors, merchants) to an EMV chip payment infrastructure will be acknowledged by many to be actually equal to or lower than the costs incurred from the current rate of fraud–another reversal from some long-standing analyst positions. The Smart Card Alliance has escalated the dialog over what a U.S. migration to EMV might look like, based on existing contactless payments trends among issuers, merchants, payment brands, processors and POS systems vendors. Will there be a timeline or deadline imposed, as in Canada and Latin America? I doubt that, but it only takes a small crack in the existing status quo; I think the change will start with a trickle and then momentum will build to turn into a steady stream of change.

Member Profile

INSIDE Contactless – Interview with Charles Walton, Executive Vice President Payments Business Line & Marketing

This month Smart Card Talk spoke with Charles Walton, Executive Vice President Payments Business Line & Marketing, INSIDE Contactless. Charles is responsible for INSIDE’s Payments business, focused upon the global deployment of contactless and dual interface products. In this role, he is responsible for market strategy, go-to-market channel establishment, business planning, and product management. He is the chair of the Smart Card Alliance Contactless and Mobile Payments Council, a frequent speaker within the industry, and has more than twelve years experience in the smart card sector. Prior to INSIDE Contactless, he was EVP & COO for Diversinet, a Toronto-headquartered mobile security company. As the founder of Caradas, a Boston-based smart card middleware company, he successfully delivered to organizations such as Visa, Target, and Bank of America, prior to the sale of Caradas to Diversinet in 2003. As well, he was the co-founder of the CyberTrust business at GTE and instrumental in capturing key first contract wins with MasterCard, American Express, and in Japan through the CyberTrust Japan joint venture.

Feature of the Month

The Alliance Industry Councils–Strong Participation and Results in 2009

2009 was an extremely productive and effective year for the Smart Card Alliance Industry Councils. The member-driven Councils produced an impressive array of deliverables to promote smart card technology and educate the market on how the technology can be used in healthcare, payments, identity and access control applications. In addition, Council outreach efforts in 2009 were successful in establishing relationships with key industry organizations in the different vertical markets.

Member participation in Councils remained strong in 2009, with over 400 individuals from more than 100 organizations participating in at least one Council. Eighty-five percent of current member organizations are involved in Council activities, with over 90 percent participation from Leadership Council and Government Members! Councils completed 44 projects in 2009 and issued 20 press releases on Council activities and/or industry positions.

This month’s feature article reviews highlights of each Council’s activities this past year.

New CSCIP Accreditations

Congratulations to the first group of LEAP members who have successfully completed the requirements for professional accreditation as Certified Smart Card Industry Professionals.
	Deborah Baxley, Keypoint Edgar Betts, Smart Card Alliance Dana Blegen, Paragon Application Systems John Fessler, Exponent, Inc. Dale Grogan, LifeMed Card, Inc. Bryan Ichikawa, Unisys Brad McGoran, Exponent, Inc. John McKeon, IBM Barry Mosteller, Oberthur Technologies Ken Pantin, The Bank of New York Mellon Neville Pattinson, Gemalto Myles Roberts, FAA Michael H. Smith, Montner & Associates, Inc.
Click here for more information about LEAP and CSCIP certification program.