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.

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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.

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“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