AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, marked the first year since the launch of United Nations Federal Credit Union’s (UNFCU) globally compliant chip and PIN credit cards with newly released results of the financial cooperative’s effectiveness study. UNFCU’s analyses demonstrated significant increases in member demand, satisfaction and spend achieved during the period October 2010 to February 2011, compared to the previous year:

• + 153% in card applications,
• + 382% in credit lines booked,
• + 20% for revolving balances, and,
• + 15% in overall purchases.

With some of the most highly mobile members in the world, residing overseas and frequently traveling internationally, UNFCU recognized the need for a universal, convenient and secure payment card. In October 2010, the Long Island City-based issuer became the first financial institution in the U.S. to introduce a credit card with the Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) standard. As most countries move to this standard, U.S. travelers are increasingly at significant disadvantage using magnetic stripe bankcards abroad, especially in offline applications like taxis, unattended ticketing and payment kiosks. Their payment cards are often not accepted, according to consumers’ findings.

Through the World Traveler program, Gemalto provides UNFCU with complete issuance service, including full card design, production and personalization. This program has aided UNFCU in serving members, particularly those located in the field and in extreme situations. For example, UNFCU reissued cards for members after the earthquake in Haiti.

“Having delivered hundreds of millions of EMV cards worldwide, Gemalto’s experience was critical in the success of our first-to-market EMV roll-out and has helped us achieve our goal of top wallet status,” said Merrill Halpern, assistant vice president Card Services at UNFCU. “Demand is high for the added security and acceptance opportunities offered through the EMV payment cards.”

In response to members’ positive feedback, UNFCU is slated to launch another EMV credit card product in the first quarter of 2012 and will also expand its EMV functionality to all checking account holders with a new EMV debit card.

“UNFCU is an example of an organization listening and responding to the needs of its members, and taking advantage of the untapped potential for EMV in the U.S.,” added Jack Jania, vice president and general manager Secure Transactions North America at Gemalto. “By sharing its best practices and results today, UNFCU is leading the way toward the introduction of this new technology in the country, for the benefit of all. This further demonstrates that EMV is the way forward to increase transactions and revenue for financial institutions.”

For more information about EMV use in the USA, see: http://www.gemalto.com/emv/index.html

About United Nations Federal Credit Union

United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) is a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative institution that serves the financial needs of the United Nations staff, UN Specialized Agencies, former international civil servants and their families globally. With members located in over 200 countries and territories, the institution takes great pride in living and breathing its mission, Serving the People Who Serve the World^®.

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2010 annual revenues of €1.9 billion and over 10,000 employees operating out of 87 offices and 13 Research & Development centers in 45 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. Billions of people worldwide increasingly want the freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure. Gemalto delivers on the growing demands for personal mobile services, identity protection, payment security, authenticated online services, cloud computing access, modern transportation, e-healthcare and e-government services. Gemalto does this by providing secure software, a wide range of secure personal devices, and managed services to wireless operators, banks, enterprises and government agencies.

Gemalto is the world leader for electronic passports and identity cards, two-factor authentication devices for online protection, smart credit/debit and contactless payment cards, as well as subscriber identification modules (SIM) and universal integrated circuit cards (UICC) in mobile phones. Also, in the emerging machine-to-machine applications Gemalto is a leading supplier of wireless modules and machine identification modules (MIM). To operate these solutions and remotely manage the software and confidential data contained in the secure devices Gemalto also provides server platforms, consulting, training, and managed services to help its customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the Company is poised to thrive over the coming years.

For more information visit www.gemalto.com, www.justaskgemalto.com, blog.gemalto.com, or follow @gemalto on Twitter.

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