AUSTRIACARD, one of the world’s top 10 dual interface card manufacturers, will exhibit at the Cartes Secure Connexions America conference in Washington, DC from May 5-7 2015. The trade-show is a top-quality, three-day event concentrated on North- and Latin-America. AUSTRIACARD is currently evaluating options to enter the US market by leveraging its extensive European experience in EMV.
In Washington AUSTRIACARD will showcase, among other things, its capabilities in the production and personalisation of dual interface cards. Stemming from its strong Austrian background in the payments area, AUSTRIACARD has advanced to become one of Europe’s leading smart card developers and producers. The company has delivered hundreds of millions of chip cards across multiple European countries, the Middle East and Africa within the last years and is a certified supplier for VISA, MasterCard, Diners Club and JCB.
Konstantinos Lagios, Chief Commercial Officer at AUSTRIACARD: “We are currently assessing different entry options into the US-market. It is the last major market to use predominantly the swipe-and-sign-system, but the migration to EMV chip technology is under way. This offers us significant growth potential.”
EMV migration in the USA – from magnetic stripe to contactless
EMV – which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa – is a global standard for cards equipped with chips and the technology used to authenticate chip-card transactions. In October 2015 the payment networks’ liability shift will take effect in the United States and thereby compel banks to issue smart cards. In most countries, the advantages of smart cards have long ago sounded the death knell for simple mag-stripe cards, primarily due to better security-levels and fraud prevention. High-level cryptography and a unique PIN-code known only to the card user make credit card fraud practically impossible. With the 2015 US EMV mandate, the issuance of EMV cards becomes mandatory, thereby forcing banks to take a crucial decision: Whether to provide their customers with simple contact-based chip cards or to leap to the technologically state-of-the-art dual-interface products. The latter contain an antenna in addition to the chip, which enables contactless payment. The card can simply be tapped at the terminal without the need to enter a PIN-code for low value transactions, thus increasing speed and convenience for the customers. AUSTRIACARD is among the world’s ten largest dual interface card manufacturers and has delivered millions of these card products across the European continent since 2007.
AUSTRIACARD at Cartes 2015 (Booth no. 411)
The Global Event for Payment, Identification and Mobile
5-7 May 2015, Washington, DC
For your admission pass to Cartes 2015, visit www.cartes-america.com
About AUSTRIACARD
AUSTRIACARD is a leading company in the field of secure transactions and digital security, and renowned for its smart card development and production business. Some 60 million cards are produced per year with a team of approximately 400 employees. Two thirds of the cards produced are exported, primarily to Central and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East.
AUSTRIACARD is fully owned by the family-owned Lykos AG, Vienna. Lykos is also the mother company of Inform P. Lykos, Greece. This company was founded in 1897 and is a regional leader in the information management and document processing business.