BAY HARBOUR, FL--(Marketwire - May 10, 2010) - SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCBB: SMME) announced today that the Company plans significant penetration of EMV Credit and Debit payment SmartCard market. SmartMetric believes its EMV compliant card can become the new standard for financial banking cards worldwide.EMV, which comes from the initial letters of Europay, MasterCard and VISA, is widely becoming the global standard in the migration from magnetic stripe cards to chip based SmartCards. EMV is an interoperability standard developed by the three financial institutions which ensures that all Europay, MasterCard, and VISA branded SmartCards and all SmartCard reading POS terminals and ATM's work together to deliver the highest security level.
Colin Hendrick, SmartMetric CEO, stated, "World banks have rapidly migrated to the new EMV standard. International banks are issuing hybrid credit cards which support both magnetic stripe and chip transactions. The next imminent step will eliminate totally the magnetic stripe from the SmartCards. Today there are over 800 Million EMV compliant credit cards issued globally. Over 9 Million terminals (POS and ATM's) can read our SmartMetric chip based SmartCards and conduct payment transactions. Banks worldwide are migrating to the new standard and have already replaced old magnetic stripe cards throughout Europe, Asia and now in Latin America and Canada.
"Especially in Europe, the EMV adoption has happened very quickly. We believe SmartMetric has the best patented technology to capture significant market share across Europe, South America and the rest of the world as SmartCards rapidly become the de facto standard in international banking."
"As recently announced, we will open up our own manufacturing facility to produce our advanced 'in card' fingerprint scanning and matching technology. The Company also disclosed that it is in discussions with economic development officials. We are in negotiations with Latin American banking entities and anticipate announcing our first Latin American facility shortly. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) research report on EMV migration in Mexico and Brazil forecasts strong growth in EMV/chip cards and terminals. Brazil had issued 341 million EMV/chip cards in 2008, with a forecast of 145 million to be issued in 2009. Mexico had issued 82 million EMV/chip cards in 2008, with a forecast of 17 million for 2009," concluded Mr. Hendrick.
Presently, bank issued SmartCards still require unsafe and security-vulnerable pin codes or passwords for authentication. The SmartMetric biometric fingerprint activated SmartCard provides the next generation of security and the ultimate solution against credit and debit card fraud. The SmartCard will only work after the users fingerprint has been read by the SmartMetric biometric cards internal scanner and reader. The new SmartMetric biometric SmartCard makes the user the key for unlocking and activation of the Credit or ATM/Debit Card.
EMV Credit and Debit Payment
Financial institutions in Europe, Latin America, Asia/Pacific and Canada are issuing contact or dual-interface EMV smart cards for credit and debit payment (commonly referred to as "chip and PIN") or migrating to EMV issuance. Further information on EMV can be found here:
http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/smart-cards-intro-market-information#EMV
http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/smart-cards-applications-financial#emv-credit-and-debit-payment
About SmartMetric, Inc.
SmartMetric, Inc. has developed a portable biometric identity and transaction card capable of storing a wide variety of personal information while protecting you against identity theft and fraud. It is one of the most advanced portable identity authentication solutions in the world today. The card contains a biometric fingerprint scanner and reader which only you can unlock and is smaller and thinner than a credit card. The SmartMetric card is ideal for a wide range of consumers, including Personal, Government and Corporate.
For more information please visit us at www.smartmetric.com
