This suite contains product and software, to stimulate banks wishing to deploy secure on-line services with value added features.

Many banks are now working on securing on-line services to lower fraud, such as phishing, using systems based on the MasterCard Chip Authentication Program (CAP). European banks, which are rolling out EMV compliant smart cards, are leveraging these smart cards to provide a secure authentication tool to their customers. Unconnected readers are expected to be deployed in significant volumes in the near future to provide generic authentication. However further value added services can be added to the authentication deployment and read with a connected reader. These services have proven to increase online usage and profitability by 400%. The partnership between Transend & XIRING brings to the market a package of connected reader & software for the end user.

"Some of our customers are asking for a connected reader because they want to deploy specific on-line services that need to have a direct communication between the distant server and the card through the Internet," explains Nigel Reavley,Director of Banking Business Unit in XIRING. "On-line payment, compliant with 3D-Secure, will be more convenient with a connected reader. Personal Information Management is hence a further service that banks can provide to their customers," adds Nigel.

The smart card is, from the beginning, a secure place to store personal and private information. Usually, the banking smart card stores the cardholder data and transaction logs, and banks provide to their customer key ring-size readers to display this information. The customers, who use on-line services frequently, can benefit from a connected reader with new features such as secure on-line payment, automatic form filling, and direct secure access to their on-line banking website.

Dan Wright, TranSend President explains, "For several years, PocketServer has provided a friendly user interface to help the end-user managing personal information with a computer. Our software was seen as a convenient web interface. We decided to go further by developing a new version, PocketServer Plus, adding strong two-factor authentication service compliant with MasterCard OneSmart specifications (CAP compliant). Working with XIRING enables us to propose a complete package to our customers, including the user interface and the secure reader."

"We think that we have a top-level package, by bundling the PocketServer user interface with our Xi-Sign 6000, which is a CAP compliant USB reader," adds Nigel.

XIRING's partnership with TranSend has been driven by the growing demand for secure Internet banking services. According to Forrester Research, the number of e-banking users in Europe is set to rise from 75 million users in 2005 to 130 million users in 2007.