Cappuccino and Croissant? Just Tap and Go: Infineon’s Security Chip for Europe’s Biggest Contactless Bank Card Project

Neubiberg, Germany – April 17, 2012 – Long waits and rummaging for small change to pay for coffee and a newspaper on the way to work? Potentially a thing of the past in Germany’s metropolitan area Hanover, Braunschweig and Wolfsburg: There, the German Banking Industry Committee (Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft) today launches its “girogo” project: Europe’s biggest contactless payment trial. Over 1.3 million bank and savings bank customers will now be offered tap-and-go facilities in an array of shops and filling stations for fast and easy payment of sums up to 20 Euros. An integrated security chip from Infineon Technologies is the first in the world to hold German Banking Industry Committee’s approval for the new contactless bank cards.

The girogo bank card is a so-called dual interface card: the customer can continue to use it for contact-based payment by inserting the card into a payment terminal. For contactless payment, the buyer no longer has to insert his card into a reader. He simply holds his card bearing a contactless chip in front of the reader at the check-out. No signature or PIN entry is required, meaning the payment process takes less than a second. By using the contactless-technology customers can pay small amounts of up to 20 EUR in a quick and convenient way.

“The new contactless bank cards incorporating girogo functionality offer customers added convenience and speed in paying small sums up to 20 Euros,” says Dr. Andreas Martin, board member of the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR). “The girogo project forms the basis for the further development of German payment systems.”

In addition to contactless payments the girogo bank cards also support the well-established contact-based payment methods. German Banking Industry Committee security requirements are regarded as the world’s most stringent standards and therefore Infineon’s security controllers have met them for many years now.

“Infineon is the world’s first chip manufacturer to meet both the high German Banking Industry Committee security guidelines and the contactless performance requirements of the new bank cards in Germany. This endorses our leading expertise in the fields of security and contactless communication,” says Dr. Stefan Hofschen, President of the Chip Card & Security Division at Infineon Technologies AG.

The market shows a clear trend towards chip-based cards, which are almost completely superseding magnetic-stripe cards. Eurosmart puts the global number of chip-based payment cards – including contactless cards – to be shipped in 2012 at 1.2 billion, which represents year-on-year growth of 19 percent. A clear shift towards dual interface and contactless payment is evident. According to German Banking Industry Committee analysis, the introduction of the chip has been instrumental in reducing fraud levels. Data theft at cash dispensers is reported to have been 45 percent down in 2011 from the previous year.

Information on the SLE 78 security controller

The security microcontroller the German Banking Industry Committee is using for the contactless bank card in the girogo project is using Infineon´s “Integrity Guard” digital security technology: the world’s first chip card microcontroller to receive German Banking Industry Committee’s approval for use in the new contactless bank cards. Furthermore, the security microcontroller fulfills EMVCo (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) security requirements for payment cards and meets the “Common Criteria EAL 5+ (high)” international standard. Infineon has developed the Integrity Guard safety technology specifically for valuable applications e.g. payment cards– applications requiring reliable protection of the data. In common with all the security microcontrollers of the SLE 78 family, the chip deployed here stores and processes the data within the chip in encrypted form. It provides a dual interface, i.e. with both contact and contactless capabilities. The chips of the SLE 78 family have not only one but two central processing units (CPUs) which cross-check each other continuously, ensuring that errors stemming from attempted attacks are immediately detected and protective action is taken: the affected operations are aborted.

Further information on Integrity Guard security technology is available at www.infineon.com/integrityguard

Based on its core competencies in the fields of security, contactless communication and integrated microcontroller solutions (embedded Control), Infineon offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor-based security products for many chip card and security applications. Infineon uses this expertise to increase security in an increasingly mobile and networked world, e.g. for mobile payments, system security and secure electronic identity documents. Infineon has developed innovative, hardware-based security solutions for over 25 years and has been the world market leader for 14 years. Further information on Infineon's chip card and security solutions is available at www.infineon.com/security.

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, mobility, and security. In the 2011 fiscal year (ending September 30), the company reported sales of Euro 4.0 billion with close to 26,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (ticker symbol: IFNNY). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.