Gemplus, the world's leading provider of smart card solutions, announces the launch of the world's most secure mobile payment and banking service, mobile banxafe, developed in conjunction with Banksys, Belgium's leading expert in secure payment systems, and deployed by Mobistar, one of Belgian's leading mobile network operators.
End-users are now able to reload their prepaid account with their mobile phone in a totally secure way. By harnessing the inherent security of the SIM and the SMS channel, operators are best placed to offer their customers with prepaid mobile services (mobile banking and m-commerce) as a first step towards deploying macro-payment solutions. When making a mobile payment, the customer will receive a description of the transaction, displayed directly on his/her mobile phone screen. To authorise this, the customer will enter his mobile banxafe PIN code, or digital signature, which is then verified by the applet. If the PIN is correct, the signature is sent to the authentication server via the SMS channel, which authorises the transaction to be processed.
Payment commissions are fixed and shared in collaboration with the banking sector, which is responsible for the authorisation, risk management, clearing and settlement. Banksys is Belgium's Electronic Fund transfer operator for all electronic payments. Most Belgian banks are shareholders, which makes it the best partner for such a solution.
Therefore, Mobistar customers can belong to any bank and still benefit from this service. Mobile banxafe has been completely integrated in the current debit payment system, which means that a mobile banxafe payment is treated, tracked and managed in exactly the same way as a card debit payment.
Bernard Ghillebaert, CEO, Mobistar, said, "This solution means that we can offer our customers with Belgium's first mobile commerce services. Pre-paid top-up enables us to build relationships with an important market segment. We can achieve this by offering improved convenience and added security for mobile banking and commerce solutions to pre-and post paid customers. Quite simply, mobile banxafe is the most advanced and innovative mobile payment solution on the market to date."
Vincent Roland, Senior Vice President, Banksys, said "Our vision is to expand our product range by securely integrating our payment platform into mobile networks. As an expert in secure payment systems, we are able to offer mobile payment solutions to Mobistar customers regardless of the bank they belong to. M-banxafe, the results of the strong collaboration with Gemplus and Mobistar, is in line with our strategy to make the most of the opportunities that mobile commerce will bring."
"Gemplus sees the role of the smart card as increasingly instrumental in the roll out of mobile commerce. Providing operators with SIM-based solutions for the roll out of secure mobile data services is where we see the future of Gemplus in telecom", said Philippe Vallée, President, Telecom Business Unit, Gemplus. “Proven business cases and strong partnerships will make a success of mobile commerce and we are delighted to be involved in one of the first real projects in Europe.
