CIM USA and SmartSoft Team to Offer End-to-End EMV Card Personalization and Instant/Central Card Issuance for U.S. Market

MIAMI, Oct. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CIM USA, a leading manufacturer of card personalization solutions for financial applications, and SmartSoft, a Cardtek Group company, and a leading provider of EMV based central and instant card issuance, Mobile/NFC, and EMV training and consultancy solutions to the global payment industry, announced a strategic partnership to provide end-to-end EMV based payment solutions to financial card issuers and bureaus in the United States.  The move is intended to support the U.S. banking and card payment industries' transition to EMV and NFC based payment technologies outlined last month by VISA.

CIM is a U.S. based provider of central and instant card issuance solutions.  CIM solutions are designed for low to high-volume output and all-in-one card personalization, incorporating technologies such as - thermal printing, embossing, front and rear indent, contact and contactless chip encoding, card matching and affixing.

SmartSoft's awards winning Palmaris™ instant/central card issuance system allows banks and credit unions to instantly and securely offer contact and contactless EMV Chip cards to customers in the branch in less than 60 Seconds.  In May, Sunova Credit Union in Canada became the first Credit Union in North America to adopt the new EMV chip cards using the Palmaris™ technology.  Palmaris™ is a complete turnkey solution that supports both EMV and non-EMV applications.  

The security, management and quality control features of Palmaris'™ are unmatched, supporting the latest technologies in EMV such as PayPass, PayWave, and Near Field Communication (NFC). Dual works quality control tools prevent the issuance of defective personalized cards to cardholders – a major cost saving and customer service benefit for banks and credit unions. The Palmaris™ instant/central card issuance system is recognized globally as the most secure, robust, feature rich and cost effective instant issuance solutions on the market.  

"The partnership with CIM USA offers significant value to U.S. based EMV card personalizers and issuers by offering a proven personalization hardware platform, and a cutting-edge, flexible and cost-effective EMV software solution designed by one of the fastest growing companies in the EMV software industry," commented Erdal Yazmaci, Executive Vice President of SmartSoft.  "The new solutions are open, with no 'black box' approach, offering customers a completely scalable platform at a very competitive price point."

Mads Petersen, Executive Vice President & General Manager of CIM USA commented: "We are extremely excited about this new partnership with SmartSoft. The combined capabilities of CIM/SmartSoft are exactly what the U.S. market needs to effectively migrate to new EMV and Mobile/NFC technology as quickly and efficiently as possible to remain at the forefront of the payment card industry."

About CIM USA Inc.

For more information on CIM USA, visit www.cimusainc.com

About SmartSoft

A Cardtek Group company, and headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., the company has operations throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Visit www.smartsoftww.com.

Contact:
Stewart Chalmers
[email protected]
Phone:  818-681-3588

SOURCE Cardtek Group