Zwipe welcomes former Idemia executive, biometric cards partner gets production approval

Zwipe has appointed biometric card expert Patrice Meilland as its new chief strategy and product officer.

Meilland will be in charge of Zwipe’s strategy, including partnerships as well as the company’s biometric product portfolio and roadmap.

Prior to joining Zwipe, Meilland was SVP of Advanced Cards at Idemia, and before that he had roles at STMicroelectronics and ST-Ericsson.

Now, the executive will be a member of Zwipe’s senior management team, reporting directly to CEO André Løvestam.

“I am honored to join Zwipe and am looking forward to helping grow the company and its business, as well as working with the industry and ecosystem to foster adoption of biometric cards across various segments,” Meilland says, commenting on the news.

“I am also deeply convinced that, as a leading biometric fintech company, Zwipe has an important role to play in the evolution of payments and access towards biometry, and I see great potential ahead for development and growth.”

Iraqi bank selects Zwipe

The National Bank of Iraq, a private bank majority-owned by Jordan’s Capital Bank Group, will pilot biometric payment cards based on the Zwipe Pay platform, in a partnership that also includes areeba.

Zwipe struck a deal with Lebanon-based areeba in November to issue cards in Lebanon and Iraq, which has already yielded a pilot with Al Mansour Bank. The partners have worked together since 2018 on cards with biometric technology from Gemalto and Fingerprint Cards.

“I am pleased that our collaboration with the Central Bank of Iraq has encouraged leading Iraqi issuers such as NBI to embrace next-generation payment cards,” says Ramzi Saboury, Zwipe general manager for the Middle East and North Africa region. “With 40 million inhabitants and 7 million payment cards, expected to grow to more than 10 million over the next 4 years according to the World Bank, Iraq represents a significant growth opportunity for Zwipe in the Middle East.”

Details were scarce in Zwipe’s December announcement that it is also trying to bring biometric cards to launch in North America, but Tsys has been revealed as the payment services partner.

Tsys produced approximately 100 million cards of various types in 2021, according to the announcement.

Tag Systems’ biometric cards production approved

The company has recently received a Letter of Approval (LoA) from VISA enabling the production of biometric payment cards based on the Zwipe Pay platform.

For context, Zwipe and Tag Systems first partnered in 2019. Thanks to VISA’s LoA (which Zwipe obtained on 24 March 2022), manufacturers working with Zwipe will now be able to quickly obtain VISA certification for their own biometric payment card designs.

“We are pleased to see the second certification granted to our customers for biometric cards based on Zwipe Pay,” Løvestam says.

“On behalf of everyone at Zwipe, I would like to congratulate the team at Tag Systems and Austria Card Group on this achievement. We are ready to support your deployments.”

Like Zwipe, Tag Systems is bringing in a new biometrics expert, appointing Marcio Milani Stervid as chief commercial officer for its biometrics division, according to a LinkedIn post. Stervid served as CCO of Zwipe from 2018 until the end of 2020.

Zwipe‘s biometrics were also recently selected by Fraport AG for the airport operator’s ‘Biometrics@Controllane’ project.

Article Topics

appointments  |  biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  certification  |  pilot project  |  TAG Systems  |  Zwipe