Envoy Data

 Smart Card Alliance Wraps Up 2011 with Release of the First 'E-Yearbook'
 
Comprehensive review of important events in 2011, including EMV, mobile payment, identity management and access security
 
Princeton Junction, N.J., December 16, 2011–From the acceleration of EMV and mobile payments to the advancement of open transit payments and cyber security initiatives like the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), 2011 has been a landmark year for the North American smart card industry. To commemorate the year, the Smart Card Alliance has issued today its first-ever “E-Yearbook.”
 
The E-Yearbook, available to members and non-members on the Smart Card Alliance website, captures the essence of a year’s worth of smart card industry leadership and advancement. It includes nearly 70 colorfully designed pages containing thoughts, perspectives, insights and company profiles from smart card industry leaders across a broad spectrum of markets and technologies–including Smart Card Alliance board chairs, industry council chairs, and Executive Director Randy Vanderhoof.
 
“Creating this E-Yearbook allowed us to look back on fantastic year for advancements across many markets in the smart card industry and an especially productive year for our members who contribute their resources and expertise to the Smart Card Alliance,” commented Vanderhoof. “It will be especially valuable for non-members and those members who are not very engaged in the organization to get introduced to programs offered by the Alliance and its many new members and their services and products, as well as to get the background on all of happenings in the industry.”
Some of the meaningful 2011 achievements highlighted through the E-Yearbook include:

• How the North American financial industry is accelerating of EMV payments based on contact and contactless technology, and how this move can enable the market to leapfrog other global markets’ advancement of NFC mobile payments
• How six major U.S. transit centers are implementing or planning to implement open bank card fare payment, repositioning transit operators as merchants and extending acceptance of bank cards for fare payment for tens of millions of daily transit riders
• How two major competing mobile payments schemes, Google Wallet and Isis, are helping define the next generation of consumer payments using mobile devices
• How the government is driving advances in finding secure solutions for trusted eCommerce over the Internet under NSTIC and how new government mandates are driving usage of the government identity management and access security industries’ PIV (Personal Identity Verification) and PIV-I (Personal Identity Verification–Interoperable) identity credentials
• How smart card use in healthcare is being driven by promising developments in the usage of smart cards for secure electronic health record storage and access and by proposed legislation to advance trials for smart Medicare and Medicaid cards to eliminate fraud

Some of the achievements by the Smart Card Alliance recapped in the 2011 E-Yearbook include excerpts from white papers and past member profiles, an overview of Smart Card Alliance events and council activities, a summary of web site enhancements and visitor statistics, and a complete member directory including the addresses and company websites of each organization. To view the 2011 Smart Card Alliance E-Yearbook online or download a PDF version of the publication, visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-2011-e-yearbook.
 
About the Smart Card Alliance
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.
 
Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visithttp://www.smartcardalliance.org.