Gemalto's instant issuance solution to accelerate chip migration of Nigerian payment cards

Gemalto has been tapped by InterSwitch, a Nigerian provider of secure electronic payment solutions, to deploy its Dexxis Instant Issuance process to speed up the country’s EMV migration of 30 million mag stripe cards. The Gemalto solution enables InterSwitch’s 25 bank members to do on-the-spot personalization and delivery of chip cards to their customers and directly at their branches. With Dexxis Instant Issuance, banking customers leave the branch with their card in hand and can start using it immediately, compared to an average two weeks’ wait time with conventional issuance. As part of the contract, Gemalto is supplying the software that allows InterSwitch to offer the instant issuance service to its members.  

Audio from June 23 IAB meeting online now

The March meeting of the influential Government Smart Card Interagency Advisory Board (IAB) was recently held in Washington D.C. FIPS201.com was on hand to cover the event and has provided, as a service to the IAB and the smart card community, an audio recording of the presentations. Click on the link below to access a list of audio and accompanying PowerPoint slides (in pdf format). Visit FIPS201.com to hear the presentations and view the slides.  

Smart Payment Association releases 2008 Payment Card Market Survey

The four members of the Smart Payment Association account for “the vast majority of the payment smart cards market,” more than 580 million, according to a survey released by the association. That figure corresponds to a 39% year-on-year growth spurred by EMV migration, the survey points out. The organization was founded in 2004 by Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient and Oberthur Technologies to promote the use of smart cards for payment. It has since picked up a fourth member, Sagem Orga. Other findings from its 2008 survey: More than 25% growth in all regions with the fastest coming in North America, where shipments have more than doubled, Commonwealth of Independent States countries (such as Russia and the Ukraine), Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa with a growth rate exceeding 65% and South Asia at plus 49%. Open-platform is gaining ground and now represents 15% of all shipments, a 72% increase compared to last year. This is due to the development of multi-application EMV cards. Growth of both dual interface and pure contactless cards has outperformed the market, with rates of 140% and 66% respectively. “A lot of industries were severely affected by the financial crisis. Despite a slowdown in the SPA payment smart card shipments at the end of 2008, the smart card manufacturers are not as heavily impacted as others can be,” said Marie-Jane Denis, president of the Smart Payment Association.

Citi brings NFC mobile payments to India

In what is being billed as one of the largest NFC pilots so far, Citi is making mobile phone payments available in India in collaboration with Nokia, Vodafone, MasterCard and VIVOtech. Some 5,000 people will participate in Citi’s Tap and Pay Bangalore trial. The pilot will include Nokia’s NFC-enabled 6212 classic phone. Vodafone is the mobile network operator for the pilot service while MasterCard will offer its MasterCard PayPass contactless payment and security infrastructure. Read more here.  

Multicard releases multi-application microcontroller card

German smart card provider Multicard has launched a new contactless and dual interface microcontroller application that can combine different high-frequency contactless technologies on a single IC. The new card uses a single processor for both a LEGIC applet and the MIFARE technology from NXP to enable the use of a single identification credential in different environments, including legacy installations. The rollout of the new cards with access control, time and attendance, cashless payment and NFC has been successfully completed and first deliveries to customers of the dual interface contact/contactless cards have already been made. The system architecture was pioneered by Cosmo.ID, a German company specializing in smart card system architecture. New LEGIC card-in-card solutions allow for the storage of standard LEGIC applications, such as those for employee cards on a single dual interface smart card. LEGIC card-in-card solutions also permit the integration of contactless multi-applications on virtual LEGIC transponders in contactless or dual interface smart cards, thus enabling the combination of secure physical and logical access systems on a single card.

NXP's IC receives certification

NXP announced that its MIFARE DESFire EV1 smart card technology has received Common Criteria certification from the German Federal Office of Information Security. After successful evaluation regarding implementation of the security features and a series of penetration tests by an independent laboratory, NXP has achieved the Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4+ rating for an automatic fare collection (AFC) product. The Common Criteria certification validates correct implementation of the security features and confirms in this case ‘high resistance’ against attacks. It provides an assurance stamp to enable systems integrators to compare the security quality of similar products on the market. The process also helps define the solution over the full product life-cycle from IC production, usage and through to disposal of the card. Secure MIFARE DESFire microcontroller smart card ICs are already used in many public transportation networks around the world, including New Delhi, Melbourne, Oslo, Seattle and the Sube-T system in Madrid.

Barclaycard retailer rewards program moves forward

Barclaycard, a UK payments provider, has signed an agreement with French loyalty solutions supplier Welcome Real-time to develop the software that will enable the bank’s customers to benefit from a retailer rewards program. “This scheme will enable up to ten million of our card holders to be rewarded when using their Barclaycard to purchase goods and services with retailers participating in the scheme,” said Dan Salmons, Barclaycard’s director of Payment Innovations. Currently, Barclaycard has relationships with nearly 90,000 retailers, many of which are expected to participate in the program.  

Turkish bank launches 'Advantage Hizz' contactless payments program

HSBC Bank A.S. based in Turkey is launching its new contactless MasterCard PayPass products based around On Track Innovations technology. Called Advantage Hizz (Fast in Turkish), initial orders for contactless payment devices such as key fobs and smart stickers have already been placed with OTI. On top of the traditional credit card form factor, HSBC offers credit cards in the form of key fobs and stickers. Currently, the bank’s form factors are accepted in 4,000 quick-serve restaurants and cafes, convenience stores, book and music stores, and supermarkets.  

Could Europe ban mag stripe cards?

The chairman of the European Payments Council says many European banks may look at banning less secure mag-stripe credit and debit cards once the transition to the EMV standard, probably by 2011, is complete, the American Banker reports. “My feeling is, although it has not yet been decided, the [council] will take a decision in 2011, maybe 2010, to only use chip cards,” said Gerard Hartsink during his presentation last week at the Contactless Cards and Payments conference in London. Were such a move implemented, visitors from countries without EMV cards, such as the U.S. could face problems. Read more here.  

HID's naviGO enables existing contactless or prox cards for logical security