AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, today announced it has been selected by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) to deliver U.S issued globally compliant EMV chip payment cards for their entire cardholder base. SVB will offer to its clients, many of whom travel frequently, the security and convenience of payment cards based on the Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) standard. Gemalto also provides consulting on EMV migration, personalization, and delivery of the cards to the end-user.

With a traditional magnetic stripe payment card, U.S. travelers are often unable to use them abroad, in particular at automatic unattended kiosks. This is largely due to the awareness in the countries that already adopted chip payment cards that a significant proportion of the residual payment cards fraud “is imported”, i.e. coming from visitors and users who use their less secure magnetic stripe cards to pay for goods and services. An October 2009 Aite Group study shows that U.S. cardholders feel “extremely frustrated” (74 percent) and “embarrassed” (56 percent) when their cards are declined overseas. Migrating to new EMV chip payment cards will enable SVB to fully address a growing concern for U.S. cardholders and offer them global card acceptance.

Starting with the SVB MasterCard World Elite portfolios, which are dedicated to cardholders that frequently travel overseas, Gemalto will provide SVB complete issuance services including full card design and production, secure data management and personalization of the upgraded cards, as well as ensuring global acceptance and forward compatibility for both online and offline EMV payment transactions.

“Our main objective for this program was to shorten production time to get the cards in our clients’ hands as soon as possible, so we needed our partner to be experienced and respond quickly,” said Pradeep T. Moudgal, Head of Global Cards and Merchant Services for Silicon Valley Bank. “We believe Gemalto has the expertise and capabilities to meet our timeline and ensure a smooth transition for our clients.”

“Gemalto played a key role in the first upgrade to the U.S. payment system in decades with the launch of contactless technology“ added Jack Jania, vice president and general manager Secure Transactions of Gemalto North America. “Now, consumers are asking for an upgrade to EMV so they can use their cards securely and conveniently overseas. It is very natural for cardholders to expect their payment cards to work anytime anywhere when needed, and we are delighted to be supporting SVB as one of the fast movers in the U.S. to address this critical customer need.”

About SVB Financial Group

For nearly three decades, SVB Financial Group and its subsidiaries, including Silicon Valley Bank, have been dedicated to helping entrepreneurs succeed. SVB Financial Group (Nasdaq: SIVB) is a financial holding company that serves companies in the technology, life science, venture capital and premium wine industries. Offering diversified financial services through Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Analytics, SVB Capital, SVB Global and SVB Private Bank, SVB Financial Group provides clients with commercial, investment, international and private banking services. The company also offers funds management, broker-dealer transactions and asset management, as well as the added value of its knowledge and networks worldwide. Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., SVB Financial Group operates through 26 offices in the U.S. and international operations in China, India, Israel and the United Kingdom. More information on the company can be found at www.svb.com.

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.

Contacts