Datacard Group and MAOSCO, today announced an agreement for Datacard to join the MULTOS Consortium.
As a result Datacard will gain an influential seat in the Systems Forum and Business Advisory Group of the MULTOS standards body. As a Systems member, Datacard has voting rights over the further development of specifications relating to off-card data preparation and personalisation of MULTOS applications. Datacard will also have automatic rights to implement the recently released MULTOS step/one off-card specifications for key management and data preparation of EMV and other value added applications. MULTOS step/one is the entry level MULTOS platform for financial institutions migrating to EMV.
Datacard has a significant level of MULTOS expertise. Since the launch of MULTOS as an open standard, Datacard has been supplying "MULTOS Loader" software to card personalisation bureaus and card issuers, which enables any MULTOS smart card application to be loaded to any MULTOS compliant chip using Datacard personalisation equipment. Subsequently, the company developed the DatacardR AffinaR Life Cycle Management System with support for MULTOS Application Load Unit Generation and Card Management. In the course of 2005, Datacard, MAOSCO and the other MULTOS consortium members will further jointly demonstrate new smart card issuance solutions for financial and ID MULTOS projects.
Bob Beer, Director of Smart Card Solutions at Datacard Group, stated: "As a leader in the provision of smart card personalisation solutions, we already have extensive expertise in MULTOS. By joining the MAOSCO consortium, we can contribute our knowledge to the future development of the off-card MULTOS specifications for the benefit of our growing number of MULTOS customers."
Steve Everhard, CEO of MAOSCO Ltd, said: "Datacard Group is one of the founders of the contemporary smart card industry and has always been at the forefront in providing innovative smart card solutions. Their active engagement in the development of MULTOS step/one as the leading EMV migration solution sends a clear message to the market and we very much welcome their valuable contribution to that effort."