New production facility for biometric bank cards opened in Italy by SIA

Financial services technology company SIA has inaugurated a new specialized technological excellence center for payment cards in Verona, Italy, which is able to produce biometric cards to replace PIN entry with fingerprint recognition.

The new facility is capable of producing an average of 10 million cards per year, and volumes can be further scaled in the future. It can produce all kind of bank cards, loyalty cards or those associated with a specific service, according to the standards for Payment Card Industry (PCI) Card Production and Provisioning. Traditional PVC cards can be manufactured in the plant, as well as metal cards and those made of eco-friendly materials, and integrating chip and contactless technologies, in addition to biometrics.

SIA can also support customers with card management services from the design to issuance of the cards, and dedicated packaging.

“With the inauguration of the new center in Verona, SIA consolidates its role in digital payments as a reliable and secure technology partner, focusing on innovation to cover the entire value chain of e-money services while maintaining a high standard of quality,“ commented Eugenio Tornaghi, Marketing & Sales Director of SIA. “From pioneers in the digitalization of payments having enabled the Alipay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and WeChat solutions in Italy, today we confirm our ‘bank friendly’ positioning making available to banks, both traditional and online, a customized physical card to be used as an authentic calling card with respect to the end user.”

Several financial insitutions, including Intesa Sanpaolo, which announced a pilot of contactless biometric payment cards from Gemalto last December, and Deutsche Bank, own stakes in SIA.

Article Topics

biometric cards  |  financial services  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Italy  |  Security Industry Association (SIA)  |  standards