AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced that Omani citizens have started activating the ePurse application in their e-ID card. By enabling activation of this application on cards after deployment, Gemalto achieves a world’s first and demonstrates its ability to offer new e-services to citizens, using their current e-ID.

As prime contractor, Gemalto supplied BankMuscat and Royal Oman Police with Coesys ePurse, its turnkey solution that includes the ePurse in the card, the post-issuance solution to activate the application, and the centralized system to manage the transactions. Gemalto also provided consulting services, project management as well as support and maintenance. BankMuscat, which acts as an issuer of the ePurse, initiated and implemented the project. Going forward, the Information Technology Authority will host the ePurse system in-house and expand the application to all the banks in Oman.

With the Gemalto solution, Omani citizens and residents benefit from the convenience of ePurse without the need to renew their e-ID card. For the Omani government, this flexible solution represents significant savings. Users can use the ePurse to perform transactions to pay for administrative fees notably for birth and marriage certificates, car registration, driving license and visa application. They can also reload their mobile phone prepaid subscription and make purchases in a number of large supermarkets. In the future, the ePurse application will enable payment of public car parks and toll gates.

“BankMuscat is very pleased with the quality of service that the Gemalto teams have provided,” commented Sulaiman Al-Harthy, Deputy General Manager – Consumer Banking for BankMuscat. “Their strong commitment enabled them to meet the timescale of the project.”

“Oman is a forerunner in implementing an ePurse on e-ID cards and Gemalto is proud to support this program launch,” added Jacques Seneca, executive vice president of the Security Business Unit for Gemalto. “This project demonstrates Gemalto’s ability to leverage its installed base of intelligent identity documents to enable new services for the benefit of its clients and their partners. Some of these cards have been in the field since 2005 and still will benefit from the upgrade: this breakthrough opens up a realm of new e-services to citizens and illustrates Gemalto’s strategy.”

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2008 annual revenues of €1.68 billion, and 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 40 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere—has become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure.

Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM), Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports, and USB tokens for online identity protection. To complete the solution we also provide software, systems and services to help our 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 please visit www.gemalto.com.