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Interviewee: Isabelle Alfano
Designation: Exhibition Director
Company: COMEXPOSIUM (Organizer of CARTES & IDentification)
The SMART Sense: Give us an overview of last year’s CARTES & ID exhibition.
Isabelle: Last year’s edition was a very successful 25th anniversary for the CARTES & IDentification show. Indeed, with almost 19,000 visitors, CARTES & IDentification confirmed its international influence and positioned itself more than ever as the major global event for digital security and smart technology.
The show confirmed its influence, with 432 exhibitors (427 in 2009), 79% of whom were international, 18,768 visitors, 72% of whom were international (68% in 2009) from 142 countries. This anniversary edition once again lived up to the profession's expectations.
CARTES & IDentification’s conference is ever more international: over the three days, 1,252 participants (1,228 in 2009) attended 18 conferences. Among the participants, 83% were international, coming from 57 countries.
CARTES 2011 conferences will again provide an insight into major trends shaping the future of payments, digital security, smart technologies, identification, contactless technologies and Internet of things. Over 200 influential speakers from 144 organizations worldwide will present their experience and their strategic business insights through daily keynotes sessions, panel discussions, case studies, etc. During the course of 3 days, the key decision-makers from banks, financial institutions, payment service providers, card schemes, MNOs, retail, e-commerce and transportation will network and increase their knowledge.
Hot topics in 2011 will focus on Mobile Broadband - LTE, the Future of Payments (with 2 panel discussions: EMV Deployment in the U.S. and Towards an European e-Money), Security in a Cloud Ecosystem Smart Health, and Innovative Mobile Applications: Peer to Peer Interaction, Gaming, Social Networking, come to listen to some start up business cases: Gigalocal, Tegona, Fontself, Secu4, etc.
Just like every other year, the high point of the Congress will be the inaugural conference of the "World Card Summit", during which sector leaders analyse major market trends and present their strategic visions in front of a full house of 500 people. Replicating the success of previous editions, the World Card Summit 2011 will again welcome nine top level executives from the digital security and smart technologies industries. They will give you their point of view about cutting-edge trends of the industry such as: NFC & Mobile Payment, Cloud Security, Identification, Internet of Things. Eurosmart will again take this occasion to present a preview of its 2011 figures and the 2012 forecast for the world card market.
CARTES & Identification exhibition is the event where the sector’s future and main trends are decided (contactless payment, authentication, M2M, etc.). Specific pavilions and areas are dedicated to these trends:
- The IDentification area will host around 60 companies which will demonstrate the dynamism of the identity protection sector. It is an essential place to visit and discover the latest innovative technology relating to biometrics, document and transaction security, authentication and physical and logical access control.
The implementation of digital identity in several countries, the prevention of cybercrime and the numerous governmental projets promote the adoption of identification technologies.
In 2011, the IDentification area will offer the opportunity to showcase the latest innovations in biometrics and authentication solutions, with huge potential for applications. - By visiting the M2M / Internet of Things pavilion last year, visitors were able to discover a new demonstration area, in partnership with Eurosmart, where experts presented home-automation applications, opening new perspectives for the smart technologies industry.
The pavilion hosted more than 15 companies, including Gemalto, Infineon Technologies, Morpho, NXP and Oberthur Technologies. Both the area and the theme will be featured again at the 2011 show.
The SMART Sense: Why Turkey is appointed the guest country of honour this year at CARTES & ID?
Isabelle: With not only the first commercial roll-out of NFC mobile payment in Europe, but also the first national identity card in the world to include an EMV payment function, Turkey is clocking up a number of firsts in the payment, identity and mobile communications fields.
In just a few years, it has also become one of Europe's countries which is the most advanced in terms of credit and debit card usage. All these factors have led Turkey to be chosen as the special guest country at the CARTES & IDentification show.
As Europe's largest ATM market, with 40% growth in the number of cards produced over 5 years and dynamic implementation of new contactless solutions and loyalty programmes, Turkey offers a wealth of development opportunities.
With a population of 77.8 million inhabitants, including 63 million mobile phone users, Turkey's payment industry potential is high. Contactless technologies are increasingly being adopted in urban areas, and are expected to progress further as banks battle to attract the growing number of young city-dwellers.
With more than 120 million cards issued at the end of the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 53% in little more than 5 years, and a total of more than 1.8 million payment terminals in service - of which 21,000 are already contactless - the Turkish banking sector confirms its dynamism and enthusiasm for innovation. The country migrated to EMV in record time thanks to initiatives by the coordination of BKM (Bankalararasi Kart Merkezi), the Turkish InterBank centre.
The first commercial roll-out of NFC mobile payment and loyalty (Bonus Trink Program loyalty) in Europe was launched last February by Garanti Bank, the mobile phone operator Avea and Gemalto, which supplied the NFC add-on.
More recently, Turkey's top mobile phone operator, Turkcell and Yapi Kredi Bank launched an NFC solution named "Turkcell Cep-T Cüzdan" with NFC accessory and e-Kart Electronic Card Systems supplier OTC.
Turkey will be highlighted on the conferences with keynote speakers from Turkcell (Turkcell Mobile Wallet Service), Bank Asya, E-Kart Elektronik, Kentkart and Yapi Kredi Bank.
The networking cocktail, sponsored by BKM, will take place around a Turkish buffet with traditional Turkish music.
The SMART Sense: What is your take on the emergence of mobile payments? How ‘real’ is this payment trend?
Isabelle: For the last four years, there has been a question as to whether banks, mobile phone operators and sales outlets have everything prepared for the mass roll out of mobile payment. CARTES, at the heart of innovations in the payment industry, offered some elements of an answer to this question by organising a roundtable on "Contactless Payment", which took place Thursday 26 May 2011.
By complete coincidence, the CARTES & IDentification roundtable on this theme was held just a few hours before its American counterpart, where Google, MasterCard, Citigroup and the mobile phone operator Sprint announced the launch in the United States of their mobile payment pilot, based on the innovative concept of the "electronic wallet", incorporating payment, couponing and loyalty functions.
The two events portrayed similar visions and answers to the question in hand were fairly close. The deployment of mobile payment requires prior collaboration between several actors working in different areas (banks, mobile phone operators, telephone and payment terminal manufacturers and service suppliers or aggregators), but the final key to its success lies in sales outlets adopting a new form of transactions and their clients using their telephones in a different way.
This was demonstrated in thoughts expressed by the various different players in the contactless payment chain who took part in the debate.
According to Anne Bouverot, Orange's mobile services director, mobile payment portrays the third wave of the mobile revolution: "It's a new usage, a new action..." She reminded participants of the importance of the word "ecosystem" to describe the collaboration necessary to build economic models for NFC technology and ensure its interoperability in the widest sense, particularly using SIM cards. "Whether in London or Paris, users need to be able to charge their public transport ticket in the same way, using the same handset," she explained, noting that: "The experiment in Nice was important in that it demonstrated that all the players in the ecosystem were capable of moving in the same direction."
"Contactless mobile services are currently being deployed worldwide, in Turkey, the Netherlands, the United States, Singapore and Poland, for example," emphasized Jérôme Sion, Gemalto's VP Mobile Financial Services. He recalled that the first services of this type were initially introduced in Japan and Korea with very specific models and technologies, which are currently in the process of migrating towards international standards, defined with the help of considerable input from French operators and banks. "France is exceptionally far ahead in this domain," he highlighted, once again quoting the Nice experiment, which was unique in that it involved multiple operators and multiple services. And he added: "This is the direction we will be taking."
On his side, Frédéric Leclef from Ingenico confirmed that "the infrastructure is ready," noting that 20% of the constructor's payment terminals in service are now NFC and that this number, which has doubled in a year, is set to double once again in 2011. However, he added, "The most important issue now lies ahead of us. It is important that telephone operators, banks and transport operators succeed in finding agreement on economic models, but the key to success also lies with sales outlets, and of course users. The new services must create value for all concerned. In particular, sales outlets need to be equipped to promote all the services facilitated by the technology."
"41% of mobile phone users are interested in the idea of using their handset to pay because it's quick and easy, but 79% of reasons for opposing the idea are linked to security," explained Laurent Houitte, Marketing Director of Wincor Nixdorf, which commissioned a study recently carried out by Ifop. The launch of mobile payment services will undoubtedly also require an information, education and confidence-building stage. However, it may not be possible today to simply transpose what banks have achieved with credit and debit cards.
3 sessions of the conference at CARTES & Idebtification will illustrate this new ecosystem using concrete cases and experience feedbacks and will highlight the added security technologies and the systems to prevent fraud in a contactless and NFC environment.
The SMART Sense: Tell us more about the Mobile Payment Pavilion that will be featured this year.
Isabelle: As the leading international business event for the Smart Security, Innovative Payment & Identification sector, CARTES highlights several important initiatives benefiting the industry, including Mobile Banking, Mobile services, Mobile Payment via NFC or other contactless technology.
This new pavilion is dedicated to mobile payment solutions providers, payment transaction processing, Trusted Service Management, connected personal devices, mobile and smart objects.
Participating companies include:
4P MOBILE DATA PROCESSING, CHARGE ANYWHERE, CITC-EURARFID, GEBE ELEKTRONIK UND FEINWERKTECHNIK, KRONEGGER, PAYMENTS CARDS AND MOBILE, PREPAID FINANCIAL SERVICES, SMARTSOFT, TAGATTITUDE, TURKCELL TECHNOLOGY, W-HA, and many more.
Exhibitors from the pavilion will meet visitors from end-user industries such as banking & payment, distribution & retail, e-commerce, telecoms, transport.
The SMART Sense: What else can visitors expect this year at CARTES & IDentification 2011?
Isabelle: In 2011, CARTES creates a dedicated area, the Smart Health Expo, to highlight e-health products and solutions developed and presented by the exhibitors. Smart security technologies (security and respect for private life) are crucial to improving the quality of care and patient comfort, but also in the fight against fraud and rising health costs.
A whole session of the conference will show how the actors of the smart technologies develop innovative and specific applications to the healthcare sector and thus to become precursory.
At last but not least, the SESAMES Awards winners will be announced on November 14. during a prestigious ceremony held in Paris, on the eve of the opening of CARTES & IDentification.
The competition is open to all innovative projects in the relevant sectors and consistently attracts more candidates every year. This year, 317 applications have been filed for 10 awards.
Selected by a panel of experts, the SESAMES Awards represent an unchallenged seal of approval in innovation and are regarded as global standards for card manufacturers and related industries. They represent a real promotional springboard and give the winners a reputation and credibility guaranteeing their project’s success.
- Isabelle
- Alfano
- Cartes
- ID
- identification
- COMEXPOSIUM
- France
- contactless
- MNO
- smartcard
- e-commerce
- transit
- mobile
- LTE
- payment
- EMV
- U.S.
- Europe
- e-Money
- Tegona
- Fontself
- Secu4
- Gigalocal
- NFC
- Internet
- Eurosmart
- M2M
- biometrics
- access control
- Gemalto
- Infineon
- Morpho
- NXP
- Oberthur
- Turkey
- BKM
- e-Kart
- OTC
- Cep-T
- MasterCard
- Citigroup
- Sprint
- Orange
- SIM
- Singapore
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Japan
- Korea
- terminal
- Wincor
- Ifop
- testing

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