Chicago, September 17, 2008 (word count: 951)
The 23rd edition of CARTES & IDentification (trade shows and congress), which will be held from November 4 to 6 in Paris, turns the spotlight on the United States. As the largest payment card market in the world, the country has rapidly adopted contactless payment and understood the potential of smart cards in the field of security and access control.
Contactless payment quickly adopted
American banks were the first in the world, about three years ago, to have adopted contactless payment using a chip capable of emulating the magnetic strip of their traditional bank cards.
The American market is the largest market in the world for payment cards, in particular credit payment. It captured more than 56% of the payment transactions made in 2007, representing 41 billion USD. Contactless cards still accounted for a modest portion of this in 2006, representing just 777 million transactions (27 million cards). However, forecasts predict significant growth by 2011: 2.2 billion transactions and 109 million cards.
This market is encouraged by the ease of use and speed offered by contactless, for consumers as well as businesses. The forecast is that 34 million mobile phones will be used by online banking applications in 2012. And 8 million to 30 million phones will be equipped with an NFC (near field communication) interface, for contactless proximity payment applications[1].
Use of cards in governmental security applications
Creators of the Common Access Card (CAC)
In the area of governmental and federal security, the United States was the first country to run a national “smart card” program. This program made it possible to set the specifications and proceed, from 2000, with the deployment of a smart card (the CAC, common access card) now used in all sensitive administrations of the DoD (Department of Defense). More recently, this program also made it possible to develop a smart federal identity card incorporating biometric data, the PIV (personal identity verification).
Since their launch in 2000, 13 million CAC cards have been issued. These cards are used to control access to the workstations of DoD employees, evaluate emails and access websites. A new generation was released in 2006, in compliance with the 2004 directive known as HSPD-12 (Homeland Security Presidential Directive), from which the PIV card originated. These two cards now offer contactless functions to control access to federal buildings and benefit from public key infrastructure (PKI) for deployment and use. They may also use biometric data to authenticate holders at their workstation. Several tens of millions of PIV cards are due to be deployed in due course.
An ambitious American identity card project
The most ambitious program, but also the most controversial, is the creation of a national identity card issued by each state to replace the driving licences currently used as identity cards by the authorities and which can easily be forged. A few months ago, the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) confirmed, after a series of tests, that the use of biometric data combined with smart card technologies (or “match-on-card,” whereby all calculations are carried out in the chip) offered a higher level of security than any other solutions. This could be a solution to the “privacy” and security questions still posed by the Real ID Act.
So, with the two major advances represented by contactless payment and access control for governmental applications, the smart card has won over the United States in less than 10 years.
From November 4 to 6, the United States will be the guest of honor at CARTES & IDentification 2008.
CARTES & IDentification 2008 was granted Trade Fair Certification by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Many U.S. exhibitors will be present: ABnote Group, Allsafe Technologies, Atmel, Aware Inc, Cards&Payments, CFC International Inc. (an ITW Company), CPI Card Group, Cryptography Research Inc., Data Systems Company, Dynamic Card Solutions, eAccess, Functional Materials Inc., Galitt US, GET Group, Go-Trust, HID Global, Hypercom, ICMA, ID Tech, IDCentrix, Innovative Card Technologies, JDSU, Key Innovations Inc., Lasercard Corporation, MasterCard, Meyers, Northern Leasing Systems, Perfect Plastic Printing Corp., Q-Card, Scratch off Systems, Smart Card Alliance, Smartmatic, Solicore Inc., Spartanics, Springcard Inc., Superior Tape & Label, Team Nisca, Telles, Teslin ® Substrate By PPG, Upek, VeriFone, Versatile Card Technology Inc., Vivotech, Web Technology Inc., Zilog, and others.
The U.S. will also be widely represented at the CARTES & IDentification 2008 Congress. A special session will focus on the U.S. market on Tuesday, November 4, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Speakers will include Geoffrey Gerdes from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Systems, Gregory Garback from Smart Card Alliance, Wendy Humphrey from First Data Corporation, Michael Butler from the American Department of Internal Safety, Kathleen Kraninger from the Department of Homeland Security for the Identity, and Iana Bohmer from Northrop Grumman Information Technology. There will also be about 30 speakers from the U.S. presenting new technologies and market changes during conferences dedicated to banking innovation, biometrics, RFID, mobile payment, personalization and co-branding, convergence, NFC and contactless, sustainable development, card security, citizen ID, POS terminals, and more.
The festive side of this event, a cocktail in the colors of the USA will be offered to both exhibitors and visitors on November 4 at 5:30 p.m.
About Cartes & IDentification 2008:
The Cartes & IDentification Trade show will open its doors on November 4 at Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre, France. The world leading event on digital security and smart technologies will bring together all the international players of the sector who will present their innovations to the 20,000 expected visitors. For this 2008 edition, the United States will be the guest of honor. The trade show’s launching conference was held on June 3 at La Maison Blanche restaurant near the Champs-Elysées in Paris.
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[1] Source: Visa Inc, MasterCard, ICMA and MarketsResearch.com, In-Stat
For more information, please contact:
CARTES 2008
Hélène Tsoungui
Communications Director
70, avenue du Général de Gaulle
92058 PARIS LA DEFENSE Cedex
France
Tel: +33 (0)1 49 68 52 61
Fax: +33 (0)1 49 68 52 08
E-mail: htsoungui@exposium.fr
Web: www.cartes.com
or:
FRENCH TECHNOLOGY PRESS OFFICE
205 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 3740
Chicago, IL 60601
Fax: (312) 327-5261
E-mail: contact.ftpo@ubifrance.fr