June 19, 2006
Versatile Card Technology Increases Smart Card Capacity to 3 Million Cards per Month
Downers Grove, IL, Versatile Card Technology, Inc. (VCT), announced today that it is increasing its production capacity of Smart Cards by 300 percent.
"We have completed the necessary manufacturing upgrades and as a result are tripling our capacity, expanding to three million cards a month. We believe we now have the largest capacity in the United States in the Visa/MasterCard certified secure production environment; possibly in the world," said Rome Jette, Vice President, Smart Cards, for VCT.
Increasing capacity threefold "has been driven by the increased success in the contactless identification (ID) and stored value card markets. With the United States markets going contactless, banking businesses realized customers wanted it," said Jette. A global Smart Card industry authority, Jette is widely known for his expertise in the contactless card technology field.
Contactless cards operate on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and allow users to place the plastic card within centimeters of the point of sale or point of entry. Contactless cards are common at corporate workplaces allowing access into facilities. With advances in technology, the highly secure contactless cards have become more economical to produce and as a result are gaining wider acceptance in the financial communities. In the United States, Visa and MasterCard have adopted contactless technology because of their ease of use and features, such as fraud reduction.
The challenge for most card manufacturers is turnaround time. Magnetic stripe cards typtically can be manufactured, shipped and delivered in four weeks. Without the proper manufacturing capacity, contactless card volume production could take five times longer. "Customers are very concerned with turnaround, and VCT has focused on becoming capable of a very short turnaround time," said Jette.
"VCT 's strategy is to turn the production of Smart Cards -whether contactless or magnetic stripe -into commercialized manufacturing," said Jette. Besides increasing Smart Card capacity, "VCT has been realigning its strategic resources to increase presence in the ID card market, which we believe has a very large potential for growth," said Bill Mulligan, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for VCT.
In addition to focusing on the US bank market, VCT also is fairly aggressive in the Latin American markets as well as in Turkey. In these markets, ID cards, drivers' licences, and stored value (prepaid) cards are the main products. "It was quite an endeavor that the VCT team has undertaken to transition the capacity to Smart Cards possible. I believe the timing is perfect and that VCT is well on its way to being the largest manufacturer of Smart Cards in the World. We stand ready to support our client banks as they move forward with the new Smart Card technology," stated Nicholas J. Cooney, VCT President.
CONTACT:
Anu Veluchamy
Vice President
VCT
+1 (630) 852-5600
About Versatile Card Technology, Inc. As a globally recognized leader, and the largest American manufacturer of plastic cards, Versatile Card Technology produces cards for every application and offers complete fulfillment services and turnkey solutions. Facilities are located in Turkey, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, South America and India. The Visa/MasterCard state of the art facility in Chennai, India, has helped increase VCT's customer focus throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. VCT's recent innovation of the Visa Minicard adds to their long list of engineering accomplishments. VCT has increased its card capacity to produce over one billion cards per year. VCT is a certified manufacturer of Visa and MasterCard and produces a wide variety of products including, loyalty, membership, gift cards, SmartCards, access control and contactless cards.
