Dutch payments technology
specialist Gemalto has increased its stake in UK-based card
personalisation outfit Serverside and is also looking at purchasing
the banking unit of rival French security firm Xiring. The deals
are a sign of Gemalto’s growth plans as part if its 2013
Development Plan, reports Douglas Blakey.

Two deals in November have flagged up the growth ambitions of
Netherlands-based digital security vendor Gemalto. It started the
month by subscribing to a capital increase in the successful
UK-based card personalisation specialist Serverside Group, with an
option potentially to acquire the company at a later date. Three
weeks later, it kicked off exclusive purchase talks to buy the
banking unit of French-based security vendor Xiring, a company
which has pioneered EMV-based strong authentication solutions for
e-banking and e-commerce.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Premium Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Since its foundation in 2003, Serverside has
grown rapidly, running more than 1,000 card programmes through its
network of approximately 200 card issuers in 23 countries. Leading
clients include Wells Fargo, ANZ, ING and KBC. CFO Tom Elgar told
RBI the deal with Gemalto
would result in a number of practical benefits.

“Not only are
we already benefiting from Gemalto’s experience, know-how and
contacts in the cards sector, the deal has given us an immediate
global presence, too,” Elgar said. “It is much easier for us to negotiate and
communicate with clients now that we have a global network of
offices.”

Working with Gemalto will also boost the
Serverside profile and will, added Elgar, “provide additional peace of mind to our clients,
as they are now dealing with an established global brand. It offers
a degree of stability if you like. And crucially, it significantly
strengthens our [intellectual property] position”.

While there will be no change in
Serverside’s strategy, which is geared to make the digital
production and digital marketing of payment cards globally the
norm, Elgar believes the Gemalto deal can make this happen
sooner.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData

Tick here to opt out of curated industry news, reports, and event updates from Retail Banker International.

Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

“We now represent a one-stop-shop for
the production and marketing of payment cards. Everything can now
be done under one roof and this is an extremely attractive
proposition for card issuers,” he added.

Gemalto’s
proposed deal with Xiring is expected to be completed by the end of
the year and concerns all current activities of the French
vendor’s banking business unit, intellectual property and
technologies dedicated to EMV-based authentication solutions.

While it has signed up France’s Banque
Populaire and UK mutual Co-operative Bank this year for its card
authentication readers, Xiring has been hard hit by the downturn in
IT spending during the economic crisis. For the first nine months
of the year, Xiring’s banking turnover fell to €5.3 million ($8
million), down by 45.5 percent over the same nine-month period in
2008.

Third-quarter revenue at Gemalto was down 5
percent year-on-year at €401 million, with revenue for the first
nine months of the year almost unchanged at €1.2 billion.

2010-2013 Development
Plan

On 19 November, Gemalto published its
2010-2013
Development Plan. The key target is €300 million in profit
from its operations in 2013, a more than 50 percent increase over
2009. The company said organic growth anticipated in all business
segments will be “accelerated by bolt-on acquisitions”, and each
business segment – mobile communication, secure transactions and
security – is expected to grow earnings.

Olivier Piou, CEO of Gemalto, said in a
statement: “Gemalto plays at the heart of important megatrends. Our
digital security solutions opportunities expand with the global
rise in digital and wireless usage. Gemalto is in a unique
position.”

IT CONTRACTS
RBI Fintech DealWatch tracks recent major technology contract wins with a focus on the retail financial services industry as well as fintech mergers and acquisitions and innovative new product launches
Country	Participants	Type/value		Date
France	Crédit Agricole, CEDICAM, Equens	Possible merger	France’s Crédit Agricole and Dutch-Belgian payments processor Equens have signed an exclusive agreement to look at aligning their payment platforms. With a combined volume of over 15 billion transactions, Equens and CEDICAM, the payment processing and systems subsidiary of Crédit Agricole and the Caisses régionales, would become a major payment services provider in Europe. According to the bank, the aim is to conclude negotiations in 2010.	25 Nov
Canada	Scotiabank, M-Com	Mobile banking contract	Scotiabank has teamed up with mobile banking and payment solutions vendor M-Com ahead of the bank’s planned m-banking launch in the spring of 2010.	25 Nov
Namibia	First National Bank of Namibia, IBM	Hardware contract	IBM has sold its first mainframe in Namibia in a $5 million deal with First National Bank of Namibia. The deal is part of a $15 million programme by the bank to relocate its core banking systems to Namibia from South Africa following a directive from the Namibian central bank.	24 Nov
US	E*Trade, Acxiom	Marketing contract renewal	Marketeer Acxiom has won an extension of its existing deal with online brokerage E*Trade for the provision of consumer insights, digital marketing solutions and consumer data aggregation services.	24 Nov
Indonesia	Bank Central Asia, Financial Architects	Security contract	Indonesia’s biggest private sector lender, Bank Central Asia (BCA), is to deploy integrated risk and financial management solutions from Financial Architects to comply with proposed moves towards IFRS accounting standards in Indonesia.	24 Nov
The Netherlands	Gemalto, Xiring	Possible acquisition	Dutch IT vendor Gemalto has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire the banking unit of French authentication outfit Xiring (see above).	23 Nov
US, Canada	Mobile Money Ventures, CPNI	Joint venture	US-based Mobile Money Ventures, a joint venture between Citigroup and South Korea’s SK Telecom, is to partner with Canadian-headquartered software developer CPNI to offer banks a comprehensive solution that integrates CPNI’s mobile commerce solutions into MMV’s mobile financial services platform.	23 Nov
India	Experian, seven Indian banks	Joint venture	Information services supplier Experian has signed a joint venture with seven Indian-based financial services institutions to set up a credit information bureau in the country. Experian will own 49 percent of the venture.	23 Nov
UK	Tesco Bank, Fiserv	Core banking contract	The UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, has selected Fiserv to provide the core technology platform for its recently rebranded financial services unit, Tesco Bank (see Fiserv bags coveted Tesco UK deal).	20 Nov
Japan	Kumamoto Family Bank, Teradata	Security contract	Kumamoto Family Bank, a member of the Fukuoka Financial Group, Japan’s largest regional banking group, says it has enhanced its risk management, fraud detection, strategic marketing and compliance capability by deploying Teradata’s active enterprise data warehouse platform.	20 Nov
CEE	Raiffeisen, Hypercom	Security contract	Raiffeisen is to deploy over 30,000 card payment terminals and PIN entry devices from security vendor Hypercom to thousands of merchants across 15 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.	19 Nov
US	Global Payments, Palladium Equity	Acquisition	Private equity firm Palladium Equity Partners has agreed to buy the money transfer unit of US-based transaction processor Global Payments in a deal worth between $85 million and $110 million.	18 Nov
Cambodia	Acleda Bank, M-Com	Mobile banking contract	Mobile banking solution provider M-Com is to supply Cambodia-based Acleda Bank with its BankAnywhere flagship product to power the bank’s mobile banking and payment services.	18 Nov
US	First National Bank of Florida, Jack Henry	Core processing system contract	First National Bank of Florida has selected Jack Henry & Associates’ SilverLake core processing system to provide enterprise-wide automation.	18 Nov
France	BNP Paribas, Oberthur	Contactless contract	BNP Paribas has partnered with Oberthur on a contactless mobile payment trial focused on the French city of Nice. In a pilot programme kicking off in spring 2010, over 3,000 residents of Nice will be able to pay for public transport tickets and obtain information on routes and timetables using NFC handsets.	18 Nov
Italy	Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Oberthur	Contactless contract	Banca Popolare di Sondrio has linked up with card technology vendor Oberthur on a prepaid contactless Visa card that can also be used for ID and access control by students and staff at two Milanese universities.	17 Nov
Finland	IBM, Samlink	Outsourcing contact	IBM has signed a seven-year, €55 million outsourcing agreement with Finnish IT banking service provider Samlink to manage its infrastructure services across its data centre environment, including mainframe, middleware software, server and storage management services.	17 Nov
United Arab Emirates	Al Hilal Bank, Norkom Technologies	Security contract	United Arab Emirates public sector Islamic bank Al Hilal is to utilise financial crime and compliance software from Norkom Technologies.	17 Nov
UK	ACI, Euronet Essentis	Acquisition	Payments vendor ACI has agreed a deal to acquire Euronet Essentis, a UK-based provider of payment solutions for card issuing and merchant acquiring and a subsidiary of payment specialists Euronet Worldwide.	17 Nov
US	Co-op Financial Services, Cardtronics	ATM outsourcing contract renewal	US credit union Co-op Financial Services has renewed its ATM outsourcing agreement for five years with Cardtronics. The deal relates to 5,500 ATMs located in 7-Eleven stores.	16 Nov
US	Bank of the West, SAS	Security contract win	BNP Paribas’ Bank of the West is to deploy security vendor SAS’ Credit Scoring for Banking system to enhance its credit risk management capability and to comply with Basel II regulation.	16 Nov
Kuwait	National Bank of Kuwait, GMT Corporation	Performance optimisation contract	National Bank of Kuwait is to implement enterprise workforce management and performance optimisation software from GMT Corporation.	16 Nov
Australia	Westpac, Hypercom	Payment terminals	Westpac has signed a five year, $50 million contract with Hypercom for the provision and maintenance of thousands of payment terminals. Hypercom will also service Westpac’s network of 80,000 terminals.	10 Nov
India	ICICI, Metavante, Temasek	Possible divestiture	ICICI Bank, US technology vendor Metavante (now part of FIS) and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek are considering a sale of their stakes in business process outsourcing outfit Firstsource, according to a report by Reuters.	9 Nov
Australia	Westpac	Strategy update	Gail Kelly, CEO of Westpac, the second-largest retail bank in Australia by retail deposits, has said that the banking industry’s fixation with large outsourcing deals maybe drawing to a close.	5 Nov
Turkey	TEB-BNP Paribas, First Data	ATM contract	TEB-BNP Paribas, the Turkish subsidiary of France’s BNP Paribas, has signed an agreement with payment processing firm First Data for the establishment of an 1,250-strong ATM network across Istanbul and other major Turkish cities by 2012.	3 Nov
US	FIS, PayPal	Payments solutions	FIS, one of the world’s largest providers of banking and payments technology, has announced it is integrating PayPal’s secure global person-to-person payment system into the company’s online bill payment application for financial institutions. By integrating paperless P2P functionality into its online bill payment application, FIS says it will “empower” banks and credit unions to simultaneously solve for a real consumer need and drive increased transaction activity at the online channel.	3 Nov
Denmark	Saxo Bank, Initto	Acquisition	Saxo Bank has acquired a 40 percent stake in Danish software and IT services provider Initto to support and speed up the development of its web and phone-based trading systems.	2 Nov
Germany	Deutsche Postbank, VeriSign	Security contract	Deutsche Postbank is to boost security for its iPhone mobile banking customers by introducing security vendor VeriSign’s extended validation secure sockets layer certificates.	30 Oct
Source: RBI