News

Partners to bring dual technology bankcards to South America

May 7, 2012

Smart Packaging Solutions, a French company that specializes in contactless and dual-interface products, announced it has signed an agent contract with Bsmart Group. The agreement will allow the companies to tap the dual interface bankcard market in South America.

Most of the Latin American bankcard market already uses EMV contact cards. Now several projects have been launched to migrate to dual technology cards that support both contact and contactless interfaces.

SPS's EBooster technology allows smart card manufacturers to deliver dual technology cards to bankcard-issuing FIs. The SPS platform resides in a micro-module integrating a small antenna and contacts for EMV contact transactions, as well as an inlay with a full card-sized antenna that enables contactless communication between card and reader.

The antenna layout allows room for five lines of embossed information on the card's ISO-defined area. Because there is no physical connection between the antennas, the cards are highly reliable.

"Thanks to our partnership with Bsmart, we will be able to bring our reliable and cost effective solutions for dual interface cards to the Brazilian, and more globally, Latin American and Caribbean market," said Ivan Peytavin, head of sales for the Americas at SPS.

"We are very happy to become SPS Agent, and to add their valuable expertise in dual interface cards to our portfolio of payment solutions. The combined team effort between Bsmart and SPS will be instrumental in supporting the boom of payment markets in Latin America and the Caribbean," said Lourival Mazzo, commercial manager for Bsmart Group.

In Brazil alone, the installed base of payment and banking smart card is expected to reach 450 million by the end of 2016, according to a recent report from U.K.-based consultancy IMS Research.

For more on this topic, visit our EMV research center.