Datacard Group First to Deliver Turnkey EMV Smart Card Solution for China; Comprehensive Solution Integrates Hardware, Software, Supplies, Services and in-Country Support.

MINNETONKA, Minn. -- Datacard Group, the world leader in secure ID and card personalization solutions, today announced that it has successfully implemented a fully-integrated EMV(TM) smart card solution for the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). This solution is driven by the new, high performing and cost effective Datacard(R) Affina(R) data preparation software.

"ICBC is the first bank in China to progress to a full EMV program," said Angus McDougall, regional vice president, Asia Pacific, for Datacard Group. "As a long-time Datacard Group customer, ICBC was confident in our ability to support the full scope of their implementation. They trusted our expertise in implementing programs such as these and were pleased with our adoption of GlobalPlatform industry standard specifications, which offers them investment protection and growth opportunities typically unavailable in proprietary implementations."

"The issue of security should not be treated as a simple thing. While all other countries are raising their security levels, those who lag behind will easily be a target for attack," said Zhihong Xu, general manager of the bank card department for ICBC. "Thus, China will be at high risk of becoming the new target for card fraudulence if an EMV based program is not implemented soon."

The Affina smart card issuance and management software suite enables card issuers to introduce smart cards into their existing Datacard production environments affordably for pilot and rollout program phases. The modular and scalable platform allows an issuer to reuse the same software and hardware resources as the size and needs of their smart card program change over time.

"The significant memory capacity of EMV(TM) cards forms a new business development platform for banks," said Xu. "It is essential to cardholders because large varieties of information can be securely stored and updated instantly on smart cards, including membership information, credit rewards, transaction records as well as other personal cardholder information."

Datacard Group offers the world's best-selling secure ID and card personalization solutions. The company's portfolio includes systems for high-volume card issuance, card delivery, secure ID issuance and passport production, plus extensive service and supply offerings. Datacard Group serves customers in more than 120 countries (www.datacard.com).