Cardholders to benefit from enhanced security and convenience of smart cards

Dubai – Apr 4, 2012 – Union National Bank (UNB), one of UAE’s leading banks offering an extensive range of financial products, partners with Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, to introduce advanced Optelio™ payment cards for its EMV migration. The bank is converting its entire portfolio of debit and credit cards to Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA) smart cards, providing its customer base with the utmost in payment security.

UNB has switched to smart card technology and selected the dynamic security feature offered by DDA, which helps in reducing fraud by detecting counterfeit and duplicate cards. The new payment card protects cardholders against unauthorized use of their UNB cards. Through this proactive initiative to combat fraud UNB customers will benefit from the enhanced security and convenience of smart card payment both in their residing country and when traveling abroad.

“We are committed to providing our customers with tailored financial solutions that meet their various needs and add extra value to their daily transactions. Gemalto’s EMV DDA card will further add to our customers’ convenience while upholding the highest safety standards,” said Ashraf Bibars Senior Vice President & Head of Retail Banking Group at Union National Bank. “Gemalto’s extensive presence in the region guaranteed that their support team were always within easy reach, from project definition through to deployment. Leveraging the successful migration in the UAE, we will be looking into expanding EMV rollout in other countries of operation including Kuwait and Egypt.”

Rabih Jaoude Abou, Sales Manager at Gemalto, added: “UNB’s move to switch their full card portfolio is a true reflection of their vision for improving their services and the confidence they place in our banking solutions. Gemalto advanced banking solution provides a smooth migration to EMV cards and at the same time opens up a whole avenue of new opportunities for UNB customers, with new value-added services including loyalty programs, digital signature as well as e-banking security.”

To date, Gemalto has a proven track record with supporting over 30 financial institutions in their EMV programs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Gemalto’s Optelio™fits the needs of large and small EMV deployments and is part of a comprehensive solution and service offering that includes consulting, personalization and delivery to the end user.

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2011 annual revenues of €2 billion and more than 10,000 employees operating out of 74 offices and 14 Research & Development centers in 43 countries.

We are at the heart of our evolving digital society. Billions of people worldwide increasingly want the freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain and work–anytime, anywhere–in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure. Gemalto delivers on their expanding needs for personal mobile services, identity protection, payment security, authenticated online services, cloud computing access, modern transportation, M2M communication, eHealthcare and eGovernment services.

Gemalto develops secure software that runs on trusted devices which we design and personalize. We manage these devices, the confidential data they contain and the services they enable, throughout their life cycle. We innovate so that our clients can offer more ways of enhancing the convenience and security of their end-users’ digital lives.

Gemalto is thriving with the growing number of people using its software and secure devices to interact in the digital and wireless world.

For more information visit http://www.gemalto.com, http://www.justaskgemalto.com, http://blog.gemalto.com, or follow @gemalto on Twitter.

Gemalto Media Contacts:

Peggy Edoire
Europe, Middle East & Africa
+33 4 42 36 45 40
peggy.edoire@gemalto.com

Yvonne Lim
Asia Pacific
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Yvonne.lim@gemalto.com

Jessi Marshall
North America
+1 512 257 3902
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Ernesto Haikewitsch
Latin America
+55 11 5105 9220
ernesto.haikewitsch@gemalto.com