NW_20011025_en_Leading payment association Europay-MasterCard selects VASCO’s Digipass
CARTES 2001 CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION, Paris, France – 25 October, 2001 – VASCO (Nasdaq NM & Nasdaq Europe: VDSI; www.vasco.com), a global provider of enterprise-wide security products that support e-business and e-commerce, announced today that Europay-MasterCard (www.europay.com) has chosen its Digipass 800 to be offered as a part of their new “Chip Authentication Program.” The combination of MasterCards’ smartcards (Eurocard-MasterCard, Maestro, Cirrus and Eurocheque) and VASCO’s Digipass 800 gives card-issuing companies (e.g., banks, industrial corporations, governments) the opportunity to offer their customers the full access to the potential of a smart card, in a safe and cost-effective way. Europay International is Europe’s leading payments organization, dedicated to providing a tailored product range and support services to its more than 9,000 Member banks. VASCO is the market leader in providing strong authentication and digital signature security to the financial industry worldwide, with more than 170 banks as customers and over 6 million users.
The banking sector has created a multitude of channels to successfully reach its customers. Banking has long since become more than a mere face-to-face process. New non-face-to-face delivery options, via Internet, phone, etc., are becoming the standard. Authenticating the customer has become a great challenge. The combination of a smart card and Digipass 800 is the answer to this challenge.
“The cost-effective, unconnected and non-personalized Digipass 800 has a proven track record and is used by top tier banks, like the Dutch Rabobank,” said Jan Valcke, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing for VASCO. “We are happy that MasterCard chose us as a partner. By combining a smart card and our Digipass 800, users create their own security portal, via which they can have secure access to a multitude of applications. Both parties, card issuers and card users, benefit from the system. The issuers know that their customers can safely access a number of applications based on the corporate network. The card users can execute transactions, check information and much more without a security risk.”
“It is a pleasure working together with VASCO and to help deploy Chip authentication solutions to our members,” said Pascal Dufour, Head of New Products development at MasterCard International. “Europay and MasterCard is paving the way in developing multi-channel secure authentication and payment services that enable our Member banks to improve their business efficiency and offer better services and convenience to today's consumer. By leveraging existing EMV Chip cards and thanks to the industry, banks can now clearly answer most of their challenges in the virtual world. Once again, this demonstrates the added-value of Chip cards and the commitment of MasterCard to its Member banks.”
About Europay International
Europay International, headquartered in Waterloo, Belgium, is Europe’s leading payments organization, dedicated to providing a tailored product range and support services to its more than 9,000 Member banks. At present, almost 262 million cards (Eurocard-MasterCard, Maestro, Cirrus and Eurocheque) provide European and global debit and credit card services, and offer cash access to Europe's largest network of more than 264,000 ATMs in 41 countries. Through its alliance with MasterCard International, over 580,000 ATMs and more than 19 million retail locations worldwide accept Europay products. Europay’s website at www.europay.com gives a detailed view on the company’s products and services and shows how Europay offers its Member banks both support and leadership on issues including virtual commerce, chip technology, security & risk management, and the advent of the euro.
About VASCO
VASCO secures the enterprise from the mainframe to the Internet with infrastructure solutions that enable secure e-business and e-commerce, protect sensitive information, and safeguard the identity of users. The Company's family of Digipass® and VACMAN® products offers end-to-end security through strong authentication and digital signature, enterprise Single Sign-On, and LAN security, while sharply reducing the time and effort required to deploy and manage security. VASCO's customers include hundreds of financial institutions, blue-chip corporations, and government agencies in more than 50 countries. More information is available at www.vasco.com.
Forward Looking Statements
Statements made in this news release that relate to future plans, events or performances are forward-looking statements. Any statement containing words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” and similar words, is forward-looking, and these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations. Consequently, actual results could differ materially from the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements.
Reference is made to the Company's public filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for further information regarding the Company and its operations.
For more information contact:
Media:
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Investor Relations:
Annemieke Blondeel, USA +1 630 932 8844, Europe +44 20 8308 7080, [email protected]