INSIDE, SAETIC partner to bring contactless EMV to Spain
02 September, 2008
category: Contactless, Financial
INSIDE Contactless, a French microprocessor company, has strengthened its presence in Spain’s contactless EMV market through a partnership with SAETIC, a Spanish manufacturer of plastic payment cards for the banking and public transportation industries. The two companies plan to incorporate Inside’s MicroPass contactless technology into an upcoming family of EMV products from SAETIC that will be available in both plastic card and contactless sticker form factors.
“Our partnership with SAETIC is strategically important to us because their position in Spain offers us more opportunities to engage the contactless EMV market there,” said Bertrand Moussel, executive vice president of sales for INSIDE Contactless.
The MicroPass platform is designed to power open standard contactless and dual-interface bank card payments along with other value-added applications in all global regions.
“INSIDE already provides us with MasterCard PayPass chips for cards and fobs, and is able to provide us with type-approved solutions and embedded software so that we can deliver cost-effective, flexible contactless EMV products to our customers quickly and easily,” said SAETIC President Silvano Guillamet.
SAETIC, an acronym for Sociedad Anonima Espanola de Tarjetas de Identificacion y Credito, first introduced plastic cards in Spain in the late 1950s. It is the first card factory in Spain to install a variable color digital laser printing system, enabling cards to be printed with variable data such as photos, barcodes and text in a single step.