IDEMIA is now providing dual-interface credit cards for financial institutions in Japan. The contactless offering is compliant with the country’s JIS2 standard, and has already been delivered to major card issuers like UPSIDER and the Toyota Finance Corporation.
The news reflects IDEMIA’s ongoing efforts to raise its profile in the Japanese market. The company has been working to bring a biometric payment card to Japan since at least 2017, when it announced an F-Code partnership with JCB. The newly released cards are more traditional contactless cards rather than biometric ones, though they have been certified by JCB and Visa, amongst other payment schemes.
With that in mind, the contactless cards would seem to be a step on the road toward wide-scale biometric payments. IDEMIA noted that its GREENPAY portfolio and its Fintech Accelerator Card Program are both available to financial institutions in Japan. The former provides financial institutions with eco-friendly card designs, while the latter helps institutions design and launch next-generation cards, including those with biometric payment features.
IDEMIA also opened a new Japanese head office in Tokyo’s Shibuya District back in July of 2020. The cards themselves are built with an embedded surface magnetic stripe, and give customers access to Smart PIN, IDEMIA Connect, and Smart Instant Issuance utilities. All three features help customers get set up as quickly as possible, whether they are (respectively) receiving a PIN digitally, activating their card with a tap on the phone, or getting their card issued in-store.
“We are proud to work with major issuers to meet the evolving needs of Japanese consumers,” said IDEMIA Japan Sales VP Nezu Nobuyoshi. “With its global footprint and expertise in payments, IDEMIA is well positioned to support the market evolution and fast growing Fintech demand. We will continue to enhance the security and contactless features to our payment cards used by financial institutions all around the world.”
IDEMIA recently announced the commercial launch of a new biometric payment card featuring IDEX’s TrustedBio fingerprint sensor. JCB, meanwhile, previously received two CEPI Awards following an F-Code biometric card pilot carried out in 2018.
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