business news OT-Morpho becomes IDEMIA Paris, France The result of the merger of Oberthur Technologies (OT) and Safran Identity & Security (Morpho), the OT-Morpho group this week became IDEMIA. The group’s ambition is to empower citizens and consumers to interact, pay, connect, travel and even vote securely while taking advantage of the opportunities of an increasingly connected world. At an event that brought together nearly 2,000 guests at the Seine musicale (an iconic cultural venue in the west of Paris, France, Didier Lamouche, Chairman CEO of OT-Morpho, officially renamed the group IDEMIA. In a world directly impacted by the exponential growth of connected objects, the increasing globalisation of exchanges, the digitalisation of the economy and the consumerisation of technology, IDEMIA presents itself as the new leader in trusted identities placing “Augmented Identity” at the heart of its actions. As an expression of this innovative strategy, the group has been renamed IDEMIA in reference to powerful terms: Identity, Idea and the Latin word idem, reflecting its mission to guarantee everyone a safer world thanks to its expertise in trusted identities. This event furthermore provided an opportunity to discover all of the group’s latest innovations. These include the automated air passenger boarding process, the new generation biometric payment card, and embedded security systems to equip the connected cars of tomorrow. Supported by a workforce of 14,000 employees from all over the world, including 2,000 in the Research and Development department, IDEMIA is the result of the merger between OT and Morpho completed on 31 March 2017. Today a leading player in the identification and authentication sector, the group serves clients in 180 countries and provides services to five main customer segments: Financial Institutions, Mobile Operators, Connected Objects, Citizen Identity, and Public Security. “Our future will be built through innovation and disruption which will revolutionise our daily lives. Our vision when we merged OT and Morpho was to build a new offer capable of revisiting the world of digital security. And this is what the creation of IDEMIA has achieved. Thanks to our talented people and the solutions they invent, citizens and consumers can now connect, interact, exchange, pay, travel or even vote in total confidence, drawing on the benefits of a connected world,” Didier Lamouche is the CEO of the newly named IDEMIA. explained Didier Lamouche, CEO of IDEMIA. “The accomplishment of this promise is what we call Augmented Identity. It is about using the biometric characteristics of each person as a unique signature of individual identity, thus facilitating exchanges. It fosters confidentiality and trust and guarantees secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions. This is a decisive step towards a more frictionless, safer world.” Lamouche concluded. First commercially available biometric payment card Oslo, Norway Zwipe has just made the first shipment of its biometric technology products, for use in commercial contactless biometric payment card pilots by leading card manufacturers and banks. Kim Humborstad, founder and CEO of Zwipe commented “We now have extensive agreements in place with some of the world’s leading card manufacturers, paving the way for commercial deployment with banks over the course of 2018.” In total, Zwipe’s card manufacturing partners represent over 40% of the global smart card market, per volume shipped per the Nilson Report. Zwipe has entered into seven new agreements with both card manufacturers and payments ecosystem partners with a focus on meeting escalating commercial demand for biometric smartcard solutions. Zwipe received their first commercial orders for their contactless biometric payment card inlay in June of this year. Providing further insight, Pascal Dufour, SVP of Payment at Zwipe said “we have received additional orders based on progress made this summer for our solution which is fully market ready. Upon successful completion of pilots, commencing in the fourth quarter this year, our partners have communicated expected volume roll-outs numbering in the several hundred thousand range in 2018.” The rapid growth of contactless payment is a key driver for the integration of biometric technology on conventional payment cards. Contactless payment card adoption throughout the world has seen double digit growth globally, and with that, contactless transaction fraud has also grown equally as fast. Additionally, new regulation is seeking to address these challenges by mandating much stronger consumer authentication, as seen in the European Commission’s Payments Services Directive, PSD2. Biometric enabled contactless payment cards directly address these issues. Zwipe’s biometric contactless payment card is the only smartcard solution commercially available, and the only solution capable of operating without the need for a battery or fixed power supply. Other biometric card concepts are most commonly capable of contact-only payment, or operate with the support of a battery. Addressing the market and Zwipe’s position, Kim Humborstad added “The industry’s biggest movers, card brands, card manufacturers and key technology stakeholders across the ecosystem are investing heavily to gain an advantageous position in a market segment that is here now, with Zwipe being the leading technology provider.” Business & Product News Every Day! www.securityworldmarket.com Security News Every Day – www. securityworldmarket.com 20 • d etektor internati onal