- Email: [email protected]
SchlumbergerSema wins Chinese bank contract
cttnovdec.qxd
11/11/2002
16:40
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news contactless technology
in brief • SecuGen and Net1 Applied Technology (Aplitec) have won a contract from the South African Department of Social Welfare to dispense pension and social grant payments. Aplitec recently won a three-year contract to provide payment services using smart cards together with SecuGen’s fingerprint biometric technology to 400,000 people in the Eastern Cape Province, beginning in November 2002. • Irish payment terminal specialist Trintech is to offer its PayWare PrePay package to retailers in Germany. The package enables merchants to offer electronic replenishment of mobile phone prepay accounts using new or existing Trintech point-of-sale terminals to secure a direct link to the mobile operator. The system has been certified by T-Mobil, Germany’s largest mobile phone network. • The Royal Bank of Scotland is to install the Document Authority platform from Valicert for its Sign and Store service. The service is a secure document signing and archival system that uses smart-card-based digital signatures. The Document Authority platform offers a Web-based user interface and can handle transactions between banks and customers linked to the Identrus international messaging system. Sign and Store enables users to digitally access, approve and sign high-value documents using a standard Web browser. • MasterCard has teamed up with electronic payments specialist Xign Corporation to develop an end-to-end automated invoicingto-payments solution for corporate purchasing. Under the agreement, MasterCard will integrate its Corporate Payment Solutions with Xign’s Payment Services Network (XPSN). The network was created as the result of a four-year Financial Services Technology Consortium echequeing research project. The entire initiative is intended to provide businesses with streamlined financial supply chains – in particular doing away with cheques. It will be based on a range of electronic settlement options, including the MasterCard Corporate Purchasing Card and the MasterCard Remote Payment and Presentment Service. • QualTeq, a Visa/MasterCard card manufacturer based in South Plainfield, NJ, has licensed its Foil Card technology – the process of graphically printing over a mirror foil surface of a card – to CPI Card. Unlike previous foil card processes, QualTeq claims that its Foil Card is nearly impossible to counterfeit, and can accept litho and silkscreen inks, foil stamping, lamination, and other applications such as holograms.
8
Inside stakes its claim in the NFC marketplace Inside Contactless, the Aix-en-Provence headquartered company, has launched a second generation of its remote readers to compete in the near field communication (NFC) marketplace. The statement came as a riposte to the recent announcement of cooperation in this field between Philips and Sony (see CTT October 2002). Jacek Kowalski, Inside’s president & CEO, said that for the past year, Inside Contactless has been supplying the market with the Hand’IT module, a contactless interface developed for the Handspring Visor platform. This module is compatible with the ISO 14443A, ISO 14443B and ISO 15693 standards for 13.56 MHz wireless communication. The Hand’IT modules are able to read contactless cards and also to communicate with other handheld devices and access control readers running on the three ISO communication protocols. Kowalski said that Inside’s Hand’IT technology allows communication speeds of up to 424 kbits/sec. Additionally it requires very low power, which is ideal for portable equipment. “Inside is now enhancing this proven technology for integration into other handheld devices, mobile phones and PC readers,” said Kowalski. “The new generation of Hand’IT technology, Hand’IT 2G, will bring down costs and reduce size.” “By providing support for all three 13.56 MHz ISO communication standards, the Hand’IT technology presents a fully open platform approach without being restricted to specific products,” he added. “Hand’IT 2G technology will be available for sampling in 2003.” Contact: G. Sauniere at Inside Contactless, Tel: +33 4 42 39 6300, Email: [email protected]
payment cards
Debit cards overtake credit cards, says Visa USA Visa USA has announced that, for the first time, there were more debit card transactions than credit card purchases during the first half of 2002. Visa USA processed 3.04 billion debit transactions compared with 2.96 billion credit transactions in the first half of 2002, despite
there being twice as many credit cards as debit cards in circulation. According to research conducted by Visa USA, customers use debit cards to track their finances; 70% say that they have a better idea of where they spend their money since they started using debit cards and 60% say they are more aware of how much they are spending. The research also shows that customers feel safer using debit cards than carrying cash (66%) and nearly half (48%) carry a debit card to avoid carrying a cheque book. Stacey Pinkerd, Visa USA senior vice president for debit and prepaid products, says: “It’s clear consumers are responding to new payment choices like debit because it is more convenient than writing a cheque, safer than carrying a lot of cash, and a helpful tool in household budgeting.” The statistics have been released as Visa (and rivals MasterCard)are preparing to face a class action lawsuit brought by a powerful group of US merchants who have complained about high debit card charges. Contact: Colin Baptie at Visa International, Tel: +1 650 432 4671, Email: [email protected]
card processing
SchlumbergerSema wins Chinese bank contract China Construction Bank (CCB), the thirdlargest state-owned commercial bank in China, has awarded a contract to SchlumbergerSema for its CardLinK package of systems and integrated services. The project is intended to be ready by yearend, when CCB will launch its international credit card services. With its 1.2 billion population and GDP of more than US$1000 billion, China has a large card market potential, but currently has less than 1 million credit cards in use. SchlumbergerSema has over 200 payment systems clients around the world and more than 100 of them are in Asia Pacific. In Asia the company has 200 staff to support its payment card business and has manufacturing facilities across 21 countries. The company estimates that over 70% of cards in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand are processed using SchlumbergerSema modular systems; these are designed to enable card-issuing/acquiring institutions to begin with basic systems of core modules, which can then grow with their business needs. Contact: Erica Low at SchlumbergerSema, Tel: +65 6339 8911, Email: [email protected]
Card Technology Today November/December 2002
11/11/2002
16:40
Page 8
news contactless technology
in brief • SecuGen and Net1 Applied Technology (Aplitec) have won a contract from the South African Department of Social Welfare to dispense pension and social grant payments. Aplitec recently won a three-year contract to provide payment services using smart cards together with SecuGen’s fingerprint biometric technology to 400,000 people in the Eastern Cape Province, beginning in November 2002. • Irish payment terminal specialist Trintech is to offer its PayWare PrePay package to retailers in Germany. The package enables merchants to offer electronic replenishment of mobile phone prepay accounts using new or existing Trintech point-of-sale terminals to secure a direct link to the mobile operator. The system has been certified by T-Mobil, Germany’s largest mobile phone network. • The Royal Bank of Scotland is to install the Document Authority platform from Valicert for its Sign and Store service. The service is a secure document signing and archival system that uses smart-card-based digital signatures. The Document Authority platform offers a Web-based user interface and can handle transactions between banks and customers linked to the Identrus international messaging system. Sign and Store enables users to digitally access, approve and sign high-value documents using a standard Web browser. • MasterCard has teamed up with electronic payments specialist Xign Corporation to develop an end-to-end automated invoicingto-payments solution for corporate purchasing. Under the agreement, MasterCard will integrate its Corporate Payment Solutions with Xign’s Payment Services Network (XPSN). The network was created as the result of a four-year Financial Services Technology Consortium echequeing research project. The entire initiative is intended to provide businesses with streamlined financial supply chains – in particular doing away with cheques. It will be based on a range of electronic settlement options, including the MasterCard Corporate Purchasing Card and the MasterCard Remote Payment and Presentment Service. • QualTeq, a Visa/MasterCard card manufacturer based in South Plainfield, NJ, has licensed its Foil Card technology – the process of graphically printing over a mirror foil surface of a card – to CPI Card. Unlike previous foil card processes, QualTeq claims that its Foil Card is nearly impossible to counterfeit, and can accept litho and silkscreen inks, foil stamping, lamination, and other applications such as holograms.
8
Inside stakes its claim in the NFC marketplace Inside Contactless, the Aix-en-Provence headquartered company, has launched a second generation of its remote readers to compete in the near field communication (NFC) marketplace. The statement came as a riposte to the recent announcement of cooperation in this field between Philips and Sony (see CTT October 2002). Jacek Kowalski, Inside’s president & CEO, said that for the past year, Inside Contactless has been supplying the market with the Hand’IT module, a contactless interface developed for the Handspring Visor platform. This module is compatible with the ISO 14443A, ISO 14443B and ISO 15693 standards for 13.56 MHz wireless communication. The Hand’IT modules are able to read contactless cards and also to communicate with other handheld devices and access control readers running on the three ISO communication protocols. Kowalski said that Inside’s Hand’IT technology allows communication speeds of up to 424 kbits/sec. Additionally it requires very low power, which is ideal for portable equipment. “Inside is now enhancing this proven technology for integration into other handheld devices, mobile phones and PC readers,” said Kowalski. “The new generation of Hand’IT technology, Hand’IT 2G, will bring down costs and reduce size.” “By providing support for all three 13.56 MHz ISO communication standards, the Hand’IT technology presents a fully open platform approach without being restricted to specific products,” he added. “Hand’IT 2G technology will be available for sampling in 2003.” Contact: G. Sauniere at Inside Contactless, Tel: +33 4 42 39 6300, Email: [email protected]
payment cards
Debit cards overtake credit cards, says Visa USA Visa USA has announced that, for the first time, there were more debit card transactions than credit card purchases during the first half of 2002. Visa USA processed 3.04 billion debit transactions compared with 2.96 billion credit transactions in the first half of 2002, despite
there being twice as many credit cards as debit cards in circulation. According to research conducted by Visa USA, customers use debit cards to track their finances; 70% say that they have a better idea of where they spend their money since they started using debit cards and 60% say they are more aware of how much they are spending. The research also shows that customers feel safer using debit cards than carrying cash (66%) and nearly half (48%) carry a debit card to avoid carrying a cheque book. Stacey Pinkerd, Visa USA senior vice president for debit and prepaid products, says: “It’s clear consumers are responding to new payment choices like debit because it is more convenient than writing a cheque, safer than carrying a lot of cash, and a helpful tool in household budgeting.” The statistics have been released as Visa (and rivals MasterCard)are preparing to face a class action lawsuit brought by a powerful group of US merchants who have complained about high debit card charges. Contact: Colin Baptie at Visa International, Tel: +1 650 432 4671, Email: [email protected]
card processing
SchlumbergerSema wins Chinese bank contract China Construction Bank (CCB), the thirdlargest state-owned commercial bank in China, has awarded a contract to SchlumbergerSema for its CardLinK package of systems and integrated services. The project is intended to be ready by yearend, when CCB will launch its international credit card services. With its 1.2 billion population and GDP of more than US$1000 billion, China has a large card market potential, but currently has less than 1 million credit cards in use. SchlumbergerSema has over 200 payment systems clients around the world and more than 100 of them are in Asia Pacific. In Asia the company has 200 staff to support its payment card business and has manufacturing facilities across 21 countries. The company estimates that over 70% of cards in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand are processed using SchlumbergerSema modular systems; these are designed to enable card-issuing/acquiring institutions to begin with basic systems of core modules, which can then grow with their business needs. Contact: Erica Low at SchlumbergerSema, Tel: +65 6339 8911, Email: [email protected]
Card Technology Today November/December 2002