French telecomms and defence firm Sagem has won a tender to develop a new generation of smart chip cards for national card association Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB.
The new bankcard will contain an application defined by Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB in compliance with the EMV specifications, bringing French cards into line with international norms. Its high processing and memory capacity will also allow for other applications such as loyalty, electronic signature and electronic purse to be implemented on the same card.
The new chip will also contain a cryptoprocessor using Dynamic Data Authentication to make every transaction unique, thus significantly increasing the security of the card payment system.
Yves Randoux, CEO of Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB, says the new cards will "permit CB member banks to meet the future challenges of the continually evolving European payment markets".
Currently there are in excess of 45 million CB cards in circulation, and the CB banking community plans to issue the new card as of 2004.
Sagem, which recently acquired a 10% stake in troubled card manufacturer Gemplus, says the new contract should double its 10% share of the French chip card market.