April 17, 2012

 

Neubiberg, Germany – April 17, 2012 – Long waits and rummaging for small change to pay forcoffee and a newspaper on the way to work? Potentially a thing of the past in Germany’smetropolitan area Hanover, Braunschweig and Wolfsburg: There, the German Banking IndustryCommittee (Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft) today launches its “girogo” project: Europe’s biggestcontactless payment trial. Over 1.3 million bank and savings bank customers will now be offeredtap-and-go facilities in an array of shops and filling stations for fast and easy payment of sums up to20 Euros. An integrated security chip from Infineon Technologies is the first in the world to holdGerman Banking Industry Committee’s approval for the new contactless bank cards.

 

The girogo bank card is a so-called dual interface card: the customer can continue to use it forcontact-based payment by inserting the card into a payment terminal. For contactless payment, thebuyer no longer has to insert his card into a reader. He simply holds his card bearing a contactlesschip in front of the reader at the check-out. No signature or PIN entry is required, meaning thepayment process takes less than a second. By using the contactless-technology customers can paysmall amounts of up to 20 EUR in a quick and convenient way.

 

“The new contactless bank cards incorporating girogo functionality offer customers addedconvenience and speed in paying small sums up to 20 Euros,” says Dr. Andreas Martin, boarmember of the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR). “The girogo projectforms the basis for the further development of German payment systems.”

 

In addition to contactless payments the girogo bank cards also support the well-established contactbasedpayment methods. German Banking Industry Committee security requirements are regardedas the world’s most stringent standards and therefore Infineon’s security controllers have met themfor many years now.

 

“Infineon is the world’s first chip manufacturer to meet both the high German Banking IndustryCommittee security guidelines and the contactless performance requirements of the new bank cardsin Germany. This endorses our leading expertise in the fields of security and contactlesscommunication,” says Dr. Stefan Hofschen, President of the Chip Card & Security Division atInfineon Technologies AG.

 

The market shows a clear trend towards chip-based cards, which are almost completely supersedingmagnetic-stripe cards. Eurosmart puts the global number of chip-based payment cards – includingcontactless cards – to be shipped in 2012 at 1.2 billion, which represents year-on-year growth of 19percent. A clear shift towards dual interface and contactless payment is evident. According toGerman Banking Industry Committee analysis, the introduction of the chip has been instrumental inreducing fraud levels. Data theft at cash dispensers is reported to have been 45 percent down in2011 from the previous year.

 

Information on the SLE 78 security controller

 

The security microcontroller the German Banking Industry Committee is using for the contactlessbank card in the girogo project is using Infineon´s “Integrity Guard” digital security technology: theworld’s first chip card microcontroller to receive German Banking Industry Committee’s approvalfor use in the new contactless bank cards. Furthermore, the security microcontroller fulfills EMVCo(Europay, Mastercard, Visa) security requirements for payment cards and meets the “CommonCriteria EAL 5+ (high)” international standard. Infineon has developed the Integrity Guard safetytechnology specifically for valuable applications e.g. payment cards– applications requiring reliableprotection of the data. In common with all the security microcontrollers of the SLE 78 family, thechip deployed here stores and processes the data within the chip in encrypted form. It provides adual interface, i.e. with both contact and contactless capabilities. The chips of the SLE 78 familyhave not only one but two central processing units (CPUs) which cross-check each othercontinuously, ensuring that errors stemming from attempted attacks are immediately detected andprotective action is taken: the affected operations are aborted.

 

Further information on Integrity Guard security technology is available at
www.infineon.com/integrityguard

 

Based on its core competencies in the fields of security, contactless communication and integratedmicrocontroller solutions (embedded Control), Infineon offers a comprehensive portfolio ofsemiconductor-based security products for many chip card and security applications. Infineon usesthis expertise to increase security in an increasingly mobile and networked world, e.g. for mobilepayments, system security and secure electronic identity documents. Infineon has developedinnovative, hardware-based security solutions for over 25 years and has been the world marketleader for 14 years. Further information on Infineon's chip card and security solutions is available at　www.infineon.com/security.

 

About Infineon

 

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutionsaddressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, mobility, and security. Inthe 2011 fiscal year (ending September 30), the company reported sales of Euro 4.0 billion withclose to 26,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (tickersymbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (tickersymbol: IFNNY). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

 

Further information is available at www.infineon.com
This news release is available online at http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/corporate/press/news/releases/2012/INFCCS201204-035.html

Companies Website:
http://components-asiapac.arrow.com/en/new_product/4429/

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