Gemplus Partners with Italian and Mexican Banks on EMV Cards

Gemplus will supply more than one million smart payment cards to Setefi, part of Italy’s Intesa Group. With the EMV migration in its pilot stages in southern Europe, Setefi is the first bank to deliver mass volumes of cards to the market. By the end of June 2005, Gemplus delivered 500,000 cards to Setefi, Intesa Group’s service centre. The cards are intended for credit and debit payment applications, as well as for Intesa Group’s specific payment application, Moneta. Meanwhile Gemplus has also been selected to supply EMV cards to Mexican bank Banco Azteca. The cards will store customers’ photographs and biometric data, such as fingerprints, for identification purposes in the branches. Banco Azteca’s Visa cards are the first of the group’s cards to migrate to EMV in order to meet the impending January 2006 liability shift date set by the payment associations. Under the terms of the Mexican contract, Gemplus will be the primary supplier and provide smart payment microprocessor cards, with the biometric technology being supplied by a Banco Azteca partner. Card personalization will be performed at Gemplus’ Cuernavaca facilities in Mexico.

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