Growth consultancy Frost & Sullivan has named Gemalto the recipient of its 2018 Middle East & Africa Customer Value Leadership Award.

The award is in recognition of PURE, Gemalto’s white label payments platform that is designed to let domestic schemes and private label card issuers offer their own payment cards to customers. The system was used by Spanish retailer El Corte Inglés last year to offer its own branded payment cards on the Samsung Pay digital wallet and mobile payments platform, and more recently it was embraced by a subsidiary of Ghana’s central bank for card issuance.

In announcing the award, which Frost & Sullivan says was the product of a recent analysis of the Middle East & Africa smart cards market, Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Research Analyst Fadzai Deda highlighted the technological advancement seen in the PURE platform. “PURE’s card range is evolving and now include biometric authentication with a built-in fingerprint sensor and dynamic security code technology, making it a truly secure payment technology,” Deda said, adding later that the platform also “offers its customers various transaction options apart from the card, such as mobile contactless and QR Code solutions, to ensure that its customers’ businesses are future-proof and compliant with EMV standards.”

The award further elevates Gemalto’s profile in the payments market as the company simultaneously seeks to establish itself as a leading solutions provider in the emerging biometric payment cards market.