At the 3rd APSCA Cards and Payments Forum in Shanghai, Aconite, a leading provider of smart card lifecycle management, mobile application management and EMV transaction processing solutions, announced an agreement with China UnionPay Data (CUP Data), the Shanghai-based on-behalf-of issuing service provider, for the supply of Aconite's Affina Enterprise smart card lifecycle management system in a showcase deployment.
CUP Data intends to provide multi-application and post-issuance smart card management services to its 120 client issuers. This deployment represents the first step in building a solution that will enable the banks to provide additional smart applications to their customers, to be installed post-issuance on their existing CUP payment cards.
Frank Yang from China UnionPay Data said " We welcome the partnership and assistance of Aconite in our IC card management program. CUP Data recognizes the importance that multi-application IC card management will have in the future for our issuer clients, and looks forward to working with Aconite to develop these facilities."
Patrick Regester, EVP Sales and Marketing at Aconite said: "We are immensely proud to be working with CUP Data and assisting with their smart card managment and post-issuance program. Aconite's Affina Enterprise system has been deployed by issuers and processors around the world and currently manages hundreds of millions of smart cards across the financial, transit and other sectors. We look forward to helping CUP Data to build this innovative service and progressing to full roll-out of Affina Enterprise."
Commenting on the move to mobile payments, where Asia is predicted to be the strongest growth region over the next 3-5 years, Regester added: "The choice of Affina Enterprise will position CUP Data for a rapid move to supporting NFC mobile applications through the addition of Aconite's Mobile Application Manager solution for over-the-air and over-the-Internet provisioning and security management. Processors such as CUP Data are ideally placed to fulfil the Service Provider role defined by GlobalPlatform, providing the linkage between issuers and the TSMs, mobile networks and Internet gateways that provide the delivery channels to mobile phones."