Idex Biometrics partners with Softlock on ID, access, payment cards for Asia, MENA

Idex Biometrics and Softlock have entered a collaboration aimed at developing and delivering biometric cards for identity management, access control and payment authentication applications in the Middle East.

The partnership agreement signed by the companies also covers Asia and North Africa, promoting the integration of Softlock’s card operating system and smart card modules exclusively with Idex Biometrics’ fingerprint sensors and biometric solutions.

“Softlock is a highly recognized security technology provider in the Middle East providing trusted information security solutions for physical and logical access control and payment,” commented Idex CEO Vince Graziani. “We are happy to be joining forces and sharing our biometric expertise.”

According to Softlock, the combination of Idex’s off-chip sensing architecture and biometric performance with Softlock security solutions will now provide companies with an agile authentication and information protection framework suitable for a variety of market needs.

“Idex’s superior fingerprint sensors and biometric technology expertise made them our obvious partner of choice,” said Softlock COO Mohamed Ghattas. “This technology represents the next generation of secure access solutions and we look forward to offering this unique solution to our many customers.”

Idex CEO pitches benefits of biometric cards for kids

Graziani has also recently composed an article for Finance Derivative making the case for how biometric payment cards can be used by parents to educate children on the value of money, while also providing a more secure alternative to traditional top-up cards.

The CEO argues that while prepaid top-up cards are a valid tool to help young people learn how to manage money, they often come with inherent security flaws connected to the use of PINs and passwords.

Biometric payment cards, on the other hand, would introduce a new level of security, allowing children to feel safer when conducting their first financial transactions.

These tools would also be safer for minors in case they are accidentally lost or stolen, as the only way to confirm a transaction is to have access to the authorized fingerprint the card is connected to.

Article Topics

access control  |  Asia  |  biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  digital ID cards  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Idex Biometrics  |  Middle East  |  smartcards  |  Softlock  |  stocks