The Xi-Sign 5000 has been designed for banks' high-end customers with a sophisticated look and feel and luxury packaging and sleeve. The 'exclusive solution for exclusive customers' has been welcomed by banks looking to differentiate their online security solution offered to high-end customers in a similar way to how they offer different types of credit / debit card packages, such as classic, gold and premium.

In the United Kingdom, where XIRING has now dispatched four million Home Chip and PIN card readers, banks are seeking to apply a segmented approach to their Home Chip and PIN strategy in the same way as they approach other products. XIRING offers the broadest range of Home Chip and PIN security solutions which all rely on the same technology, enabling a XIRING customer to immediately deploy any new product from the Xi-Sign range.

"Following the widespread adoption of Home Chip and PIN in the United Kingdom with millions of users now equipped, banks are developing a segmented customer approach for their online security strategy. The Xi-Sign 5000 extra slim, premier solution meets banks' expectations for their high net worth customers," comments Hervé Bayle, Director of the Banking BU, XIRING.

The Xi-Sign 5000 will be rolled out in September across Europe.

Separately, XIRING, a European security solutions provider for remote transactions, today announced that it has dispatched the four millionth Xi-Sign in the United Kingdom.

In 2007, a number of UK high street banks began mass deployment of security solutions based on the Chip and PIN bank card to secure their online banking operations. So-called 'Home Chip and PIN' solutions enable users to benefit from Chip and PIN security when they conduct banking transactions online. Working with several of these banks, XIRING has now dispatched over four million Xi-Sign solutions, enabling Britons to bank securely online.

Home Chip and PIN security solutions are based on a worldwide security standard from MasterCard (Chip Authentication Programme - CAP) and Visa (Dynamic Passcode Authentication). APACS (the UK Payment Association) has mandated that all Chip and PIN card readers in the UK must be interoperable; in other words, users can conduct online banking transactions securely using any bank's Chip and PIN card reader.

The Faster Payments initiative has been a major driver for deploying Home Chip and PIN solutions in the UK. The new retail banking initiative presents a challenge for banks as transactions have to be processed within a few hours, thus drastically reducing the window for back-office based risk analysis. As a result, several UK banks decided to add an extra layer of security at the very beginning of each transaction by deploying Home Chip and PIN card readers for their online customers.

"In less than 18 months, we have dispatched four million Xi-Sign in the United Kingdom. Feedback from end users has been largely positive with many pleased to see their banks proactively taking measures to ensure their online banking is secure. The simplicity of Home Chip and PIN has made the transition smooth and easy to adopt. Home Chip and PIN is now an everyday solution which has enabled consumers to have confidence in the online banking channel," comments Georges Liberman, Chairman and CEO, XIRING.