NW_20020404_en_Leading Croatian Financial Services Provider MBU to Deliver Secure Financial Services Based on VASCO
OAKBROOK TERRACE, Illinois, BRUSSELS, Belgium and MUNICH, Germany– April 04, 2002 – VASCO Data Security International (Nasdaq NM & Nasdaq Europe: VDSI; www.vasco.com ), a global provider of enterprise-wide security products that support e-business and e-commerce, Proton World ( www.protonworld.com ), and Giesecke & Devrient (www.gi-de.com ) announce that MBU (www.mbu.hr ), the leading Croatian financial services provider, will develop a secure end user platform via Proton World, Giesecke & Devrient and VASCO products.
Proton World developed and delivered the end-to-end smart card technology for this high-security payment and identity system that will be demonstrated by MBU in Croatia. Proton provides proven smart card technology to 24 licensees, that have 40 million Proton-based cards in the field today, doing millions of transactions in over 315.000 terminals every month.
Giesecke & Devrient - with their expertise in card & application development, production and personalization and a full range of Proton and other payment card products - have integrated the specific requirements of MBU into the market-proven StarProton R3 product. In the future, these requirements will be migrated to StarProton Prisma – the multi-application platform, specified by Proton World. Therefore, the cards used in this project not only contain the Proton electronic purse, but also loyalty functions and compatibility with VASCO’s Digipass. A demo project, including VASCO’s Digipass 850, will start shortly. The system will be shown to all of MBU’s member-banks and later offered to the customers of interested Croatian financial institutions.
VASCO’s Digipass 850 can future-proof any new or existing smart card system, increase a network’s security and leverage investment in a public key infrastructure (PKI) solution. This advanced e-wallet/PKI device provides ultimate versatility and security, supporting strong authentication and e-signatures for the customers authorized to carry smart cards. Digipass 850 can be used as a secure PIN pad, in a connected way (via a USB cable linked to a computer) or in an unconnected mode. Connected, Digipass 850 can be used to perform secure actions in PKI environments. Unconnected, it features the same functionalities as the Digipass 800, extending strong authentication and digital signature capabilities to smart cards, enabling existing smart card environments to give safe and flexible access to e-banking applications.
“With this project, MBU proves to be really visionary about the future of banking and the broad array of applications that can be offered,” said Jan Valcke, VASCO’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “It is really crucial that banking customers have complete trust while performing online transactions. That is where security comes in. We are proud that VASCO’s Digipass 850 will secure the trust and value of Croatian banking customers.”
“The MBU chip card demo project combines and illustrates multiple new application functions of the bank chip card: authentication using VASCO’s real-time and one-time password generation, secure storage of the ISO2 magstripe information in the chip and retrieval during ATM & POS debit & credit transactions already significantly reducing the magstripe skimming fraud, e-purse offering low-cost and highly secure off-line transaction processing, loyalty retail applications” said Sergio Uran, MBU’s General Manager. “ All the above chip functions were added via a Giesiecke & Devrient Proton-chip on standard magstripe MBU banks MBCARD and furthermore, the same bank-PIN as used for ATM & POS transactions is now used to access the chip card applications: For instance the same PIN is used to reload the e-purse and to calculate the one-time password to authenticate non face to face transactions for internet and telephone banking.”
“Proton World fully supports the set-up of this demonstration project for MBU, as it will support our conviction that multi-application functionality is key for issuing banks to give full value to their smart card based payment and identification systems”, explains Armand Linkens, CEO of Proton World. “We are proud that Proton World’s long working relationship with its card and terminal manufacturers results in this valuable project which meets our customers’ requirements. In general this proves the validity and success of Proton World’s end-to-end system approach with its partners.“
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.
About MBU
MBU Ltd – IT engineering and interbank services – was established at the initiative of Croatian banks with the aim of co-ordinating the design and develoment of a common infrastructure for modern bank card operations. MBU has designed, built and started operating the MBNET system. MBNET entails a communication network for ATMs and EFTPOS terminals, a card acquiring and authorization system, a security system and a back office system for data exchange. In order to ensure simple, secure and quality service, MBU Ltd. has opted for the use of state-of-the-art technology and for those solutions which have been tested, certified and implemented by leading international card operating networks.
About Proton World
Proton World develops, licenses and delivers high security payment and identity smart card systems based on the market-leading Proton technology. There are Proton licensees in 24 countries: together they have so far
installed over 315,000 terminals, where their 40 million cardholders perform millions of transactions each month.
Building on the solid foundations of its expertise in and its extensive network throughout the banking and finance sector as provider of the world's most frequently-used electronic purse technology, Proton World has developed
Proton Prisma, a family of products that provides an infrastructure for secure multiple-application smart card programmes (debit, credit, domestic and interoperable purse, PKI and others), that offers issuers a wide choice
of certified hardware vendors, simplified mass personalization, dynamically-downloadable applications and multi-vendor card sourcing. Proton Prisma implements international smart card standards, such as CEPS, EMV and
GlobalPlatform. Proton World is a member of ERG Group, a global technology group, and specialist in transit and multi-application systems. For more information, please visit the Proton World website at
http://www.protonworld.com
About Giesecke & Devrient:
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is an internationally operating high-tech group, founded in 1852 as a specialist for banknote printing and security paper manufacture, later adding currency automation systems to its product spectrum. Today, G&D is a technology leader in the supply of smart cards, card systems and solutions for telecommunications, electronic payments, transportation, health, ID, loyalty, pay-TV, multimedia and Internet security (PKI).
The Giesecke & Devrient Group, headquartered in Munich, has subsidiaries and joint ventures operating all over the world. G&D employs almost 7,000 people world-wide and generated a revenue of euro 1.1 billion in 2000. Throughout the company's 150-year history, G&D has consistently pioneered the use of innovative technology. Today, the supply of complex system solutions and customized services plays an increasingly important part in the organization's activities.
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:
VASCO Data Security:
Media:
Jochem Binst, +32 2 456 9810, [email protected]
Investor Relations:
Annemieke Blondeel, USA +1 630 932 8844, Europe +44 20 8298 99 60, [email protected]
MBU
Sergio Uran, General Manager
Tel.: +385 1 3091 555
e-mail: [email protected]
Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
Andrea Bockholt, Press Officer
Prinzregentenstrasse 159, D-81607 Munich
Tel: +49 89 41 19-1189, Fax: -2020
eMail: [email protected]
Internet: www.gi-de.com
Proton World
Ms Dominique Hautain, Senior Vice President Business Development (EMEA Region)
Telephone +32 2 724 5111 Fax +32 2 724 5060
e-mail [email protected]