Industry experts Integri, Keyware and Clear2Pay to provide foundation for innovative applications using NFC technology

Universities link up with Belgian technology providers for research on Near Field Communication (NFC)

3 June 2008, Brussels – A number of IBBT research groups from the Belgian universities of Leuven, Gent and Brussels announce a collaboration with leading IT players in the payment industry to thoroughly investigate the possibilities, usability and security of NFC applications. The agreement will also enable the preparation of the Belgian market and speed up the availability of standardized NFC-based products. The NFC Voucher project functions within the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT), a research institute founded by the Flemish government.

NFC is a short-range, wireless connectivity technology allowing consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content and connect electronic devices. The technology will enable consumers to use their mobile phone or device to, for example, make payments, access the public transport or store electronic coupons. There’s an abundance of realistic business opportunities to be explored.

Within the scope of this project a new communication scheme is to be analysed: the viability of NFC-based electronic vouchers as an alternative for popular paper-based vouchers like, for example, meal vouchers, gift vouchers or discount coupons. The different aspects of this NFCVoucher concept are currently being studied by the different partners such as business model, legal aspects, usability, security, communication cost, etc. Issuing vouchers using the new technology will simplify and influence consumer behaviour.

"The IBBT project will facilitate the introduction of next generation applications such as NFC and will offer new value-added services for the benefit of the Belgian customer" said Bart Preneel, professor at COSIC, K.U.Leuven. "Gathering a group of industry experts with different expertise is a strong asset to develop convenient and secure e-transactions" Mr. Preneel added.

Note to editors: Bart Preneel is a Belgian cryptographer; he is president of the IACR (International Association for Cryptology Research) and of L-SEC (Leaders in Security) and one of the designers of the standard hash function RIPEMD-160. He is also one of the architects behind the Belgian e-ID card.

About Integri
Integri specialises in test tools and test services for payment, ticketing and mobile applications. Alongside the open INQ platform, Integri offers a number of dedicated platforms for specific applications, each with a number of Off-the-Shelf Test Suites. These test suites are fully prepared solutions that include simulation and test scripts and are based on international open standards. Integri employs 45 staff, has +150 customers and sold +2000 licenses in 35 countries since its inception in 1992. Integri is located in Belgium, France and the US. Integri’s clients are mainly financial institutions, smartcard manufacturers, terminal manufacturers, ticketing operators, mobile operators and system integrators active in e- or m-business.
Integri is a wholly owned, autonomous business unit of Clear2Pay, an international financial technology company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely electronic payments. Clear2Pay operates from 13 international offices and currently employs over 400 staff.

More information on www.integri.com

Media contact Integri
Steve Lacourt
Tel: +32 (0) 2 717 69 00
E:

About Clear2Pay
Clear2Pay is an innovative financial technology company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely electronic payments. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the company facilitates banks and financial organisations in their provision of payments services. Clear2Pay's technology helps to reduce transactions processing costs, and to deliver new, compelling payment services in a competitive way. Clear2Pay's payment solutions offer organisations easy, branded ways for their customers to pay online: from complex trade-supporting business-to-business environments, through e-commerce applications, to retail payments and remittance services. Functions embrace payments origination, reporting, linkage with back-office processing systems, clearing, netting and settlement. Clients include global and major regional financial institutions such as ING, SEB Kort, VISA, MasterCard, ABN AMRO, Nordea, Abbey National, Fortis Bank, ANZ and Commonwealth Bank. Clear2Pay operates out of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, China, Malaysia and Singapore and currently employs 400 staff.

More information is available on www.clear2pay.com

Media contact Clear2Pay
Conny Dorrestijn
Tel: +31 (0) 651 06 72 01
E:

About Keyware
Keyware (EURONEXT Brussels: KEYW) is a leading supplier of solutions for electronic payment, loyalty systems, identity applications and related transaction management. Keyware is based in Zaventem, Belgium.

More information is available on www.keyware.com

Contact Keyware :
Mr. Stéphane Vandervelde
President & CEO
Tel: +32 (0)2 346.25.23
E:

About IBBT
IBBT, the Interdisciplinary institute for BroadBand Technology, is a research institute founded by the Flemish government, aimed at Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in general, and the development of broadband applications in particular. IBBT’s primary mission is to develop highly competent human capital and to carry out multidisciplinary research on behalf of the Flemish business community as well as the Flemish government. IBBT receives a yearly budget of 23,2 million euro. Since its foundation in 2004, IBBT has started over 45 projects with more than 170 organisations. These projects strive for the joint development of innovative applications in several domains, as there are health care, mobility, new media and e-government.

More information is available on www.ibbt.be

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