IDEMIA and JCB partner to launch the first F-Code payment card in Japan

COLOMBES, France–(BUSINESS WIRE)– IDEMIA, the global leader in trusted identities for an increasingly digital world, today announces its partnership with JCB, the leading international payment network in Japan, to introduce the future of biometric payments to Japanese customers.

With F-Code, the new generation biometric payment card which replaces your PIN code with your fingerprint, a new chapter opens up for biometric payments in Japan and within regional JCB core markets. F-Code reinforces the user’s security and privacy by ensuring a unique and universal identification. It also helps retailers speed up the check-out process as well as enabling banks and governments to reduce illegitimate access to services and prevent identity fraud and theft.

After JCB’s successful introduction of the JCB Tokenization Platform (JTP) in collaboration with IDEMIA in 2016, a strong partnership has been established between IDEMIA (formerly known as OT-Morpho) and JCB regarding payment innovation in Japan. Today, the two companies present the future of payments to a country always eager for innovation. This major business announcement was made by Didier Lamouche, IDEMIA’s CEO, at the JCB World Conference, which took place on November 2 in Taipei.

“Convinced that digital payments will change the way people shop and pay by bringing more convenience and security to the payment experience, we are thrilled to participate in the next wave in Japan. We are looking forward to shaping the future of payments with our partner JCB”, said Didier Lamouche, IDEMIA’s CEO.

Ichiro Hamakawa, JCB’s CEO, has commented “We are happy to partnering with IDEMIA in order to bring customers the F-Code technology. We tirelessly work on offering the most recent and secured technologies to payment card users in Japan and abroad. Introducing them this biometric new opportunity to secure daily payments will add a major milestone to our business.”

About IDEMIA

OT-Morpho is now IDEMIA, the global leader in trusted identities for an increasingly digital world, with the ambition to empower citizens and consumers alike to interact, pay, connect, travel and vote in ways that are now possible in a connected environment.

Securing our identity has become mission critical in the world we live in today. By standing for Augmented Identity, we reinvent the way we think, produce, use and protect this asset, whether for individuals or for objects. We ensure privacy and trust as well as guarantee secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors.

With close to €3bn in revenues, IDEMIA is the result of the coming together of OT (Oberthur Technologies) and Safran Identity & Security (Morpho). This new company counts 14,000 employees of more than 80 nationalities and serves clients in 180 countries.

For more information, visit www.IDEMIA.com / Follow @IDEMIAGroup on Twitter

About JCB

JCB is a major global payment brand and a leading payment card issuer and acquirer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with hundreds of leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase merchant coverage and card member base. As a comprehensive payment solution provider, JCB commits to provide responsive and high-quality service and products to all customers worldwide. Currently, JCB cards are accepted globally and issued in 23 countries and territories.

For more information, please visit: www.global.jcb/en/

Note: Statistics about JCB are as of March 2017.

Press contacts

Julien TAHMISSIAN: julien.tahmissian@havas.com

Niels GAUBERT: niels.gaubert@havas.com