Smart card-based foreign resident ID card dramatically improves document security

Amsterdam, Nov 9, 2009–Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced that Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda (INCM), the Portuguese Mint and National Printing Office, has started issuing its Sealys Resident cards, compliant with the electronic European Residence Permit (eERP) specifications and the latest ICAO Extended Access Control standards. Gemalto is delivering 150,000 cards per year as of 2009 and over the next two years and supplied INCM with its Coesys Issuance personalization solution. The smart card permits dramatically improve document security and by deploying them, Portugal is fulfilling the European Union (EU) recommendation that requires all 27 Member States to roll out the eERP from 2010.

The electronic European Residence Permit card provides temporary residence entitlement for non-EU citizens for any stay over three months, and for some shorter work-related stays. It embeds a contactless chip which securely stores facial image and two fingerprints, simplifying residency entitlement verification. As defined in the eERP specifications, the contactless interface is mandatory and meets the same EU standards as biometric e-passports do. The permit also stores id-numbers such as social security and taxpayer identifiers.

“We selected Gemalto’s digital security technology for both our national identity and electronic passport programs,” commented José I. Toscano, executive director and member of the Board at INCM. “INCM is extremely pleased with Gemalto’s capacity to deliver the chip, the operating system and the inlay in due time, for electronic Portuguese Resident Permit card, with the quality of service we already experienced with our national e-ID cards and second-generation e-passports.”

“Gemalto is proud to cooperate with INCM in the delivery of the first electronic European Residence Permit,” added Jacques Seneca, Executive Vice President of the Security Business Unit for Gemalto. “The industry estimates that some 20 million people within the EU require such a permit for various reasons such as work, study, family ties or asylum seeking.”

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2008 annual revenues of €1.68 billion, and 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 40 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work–anytime, anywhere–has become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure.

Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM), Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports, and USB tokens for online identity protection. To complete the solution we also provide software, systems and services to help our customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the company is poised to thrive over the coming years.

For more information please visit http://www.gemalto.com.

Contacts

Gemalto
Rémi Calvet
Tel: +33 (0) 1 55 01 64 10
Mob: +33 (0) 6 22 72 81 58
E-mail: remi.calvet@gemalto.com

Aline Borne
T.: +33 (0)1 55 01 51 05
M.: +33 (0)6 16 29 87 04
E-mail: aline.borne@gemalto.com

TBWACorporate
Rebekah Lahey
Tel: +33 (0) 1 49 09 26 58
Mob : +33 (0) 6 07 21 08 77
E-mail: rebekah.lahey@tbwa-corporate.com