SMARTCARD2010
27.-29.09.2010

It is for the 11th time that we organize this Conference, and we are free to say that in the past 10 years we have seen major technological advances, solutions and applications. Europe’s banking market is currently undergoing deep organizational change (SEPA). On one hand banks are trying to reduce costs, which leads to a wave of mergers and acquisitions, as well as the introduction of more productive technologies, and on the other hand, as a result of competition, new products and services are being offered, designed to attract the client.

In the technological arena the main topic in Europe is introduction of the multifunction contactless EMV chip card (Europay, Mastercard and Visa), and attention is being devoted to the new areas – from the problems of issuing to other aspects of a card’s life cycle (operation, particularly safety, black lists, prevention of fraud, various additional applications (banking and non banking such loyalty, prepaid, identification, etc.) and new technologies for infrastructure (contactless).

By European standards, Croatia has a good acceptance rate of cards in the population and by the companies (it is 8.000.000 cards issued, most of them EMV). Due to such market requirements, our Conference year by year covers the area of new technologies, standards, developments and application of smart cards (chip cards) in the finance area, safety of transactions and payments, Transit, Trade, identification and other areas.

For the past 10 years the Sector of Banking and Other Financial Institutions of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, through cooperation with banks and card companies, gathers and analyses data on the number of cards, ATMs and EFT POS terminals. This research includes also the data on the value and number of card transactions. Tables and figures for each segment of this analysis (cards, ATMs, EFT POS terminals, value and number of card transactions) will provide you with a good insight in the results of this follow-up from the year 2000 until the first half of 2009, where a particular stress is being placed on growth rates. In Croatia today there are over 8 million simple magnetic pay cards circulation that should be substituted, although a part (more than 5 million) has already undergone this process. This will surely affect the expenses of the card issuers - primarily (though not exclusively) the banks, but also the upgrading of existing infrastructure for operating chip cards and contactless version.

The number of projects already in operation in Croatia is increasing (e.g. Erste bank, PBZCard, Zagrebačka banka, Erste bank, and the like), and advances in new areas of Internet based operations are expected, particularly multifunctional applications (health and identity cards, passports, payments at petrol stations, transportation and the like). We also see the emergence of domestic producers of smart cards which will satisfy a growing demand. Particularly interesting is a new version of EMV contactless card, a feature which fundamentally changes the technology of card reading. The need for safe operations has most certainly accelerated their application in spite of a range of additional costs. Thanks to the inbuilt solutions it is now possible to integrate several services on one device and thereby achieve a greater productivity (of the ATMs, POS terminals, kiosks, mobile phones) and conduct non-banking transactions (e.g. towards the government administration, health service and the like). We expect this Conference to give us presentations of important projects in the area of integration, safety and new applications, and confirm the interest for a broad use of smart cards.

The Conference consists of expert presentations, lectures, workshops, seminars and an exhibition. Information about the Conference (as well as earlier conferences) can be found at the web site www.case.hr/smartcard2010. The International Conference will feature world’s most important producers of equipment, solutions and services (e.g. ACI Worlwide, Austria Card, Atos - Banksys, Bull, Collis, CRIF, Datacard, Epci, First Data, Gemalto, Mastercard, Oberthur card, Printec, RBR, SBS, Todos Data System, Vasco, Xiring etc.) as well as domestic ones (AKZ, Etranet, Infigo IS, INSig2, IPR, Logos, Karpos, Webteh, ZMS Info,) banks and similar institutions (MBU, PBZ Card, Zagrebačka banka, etc.).

Conference will present the most recent solutions and projects for banks, as well for some new areas (applications for passenger transportation, identity cards, passports, non-financial transactions, electronic signature, safety, commerce and the like). We particularly put accent on the workshops and seminars of this Conference. Some will deal with the costs of implementation and operational problems (such as Safety of the Cards and ATMs - PSI DSS, Prevention and Risk Management, and the like). The summaries of six seminars were sent along with the invitations and we hope that each participant succeeded in choosing the content which is of greatest relevance for his/her current work.

Workshops always have a good attendance because the participants can see live demonstrations of new technologies and solutions. We have 6 workshops – 3 per day. Facilitators of workshops have chosen interesting topics in a range from contactless payment solutions, additional possibilities of POS terminals and their networks, card acceptance, the role of chip cards in a multi-channel payment system and other applications. We particularly stress the Visa workshop where, on a specially designed presentational model you will be able to see live various possibilities of smart cards (the Workshop will be repeated as it can accommodate only small groups of 15 participants).

We believe that the exhibition with exhibitors of equipment and solutions will elicit your interest. Most presenters and lecturers come from abroad, but Croatia is solidly represented as well.

The participants of the Conference come from all the Croatian banks, financial, economy and state administration institutions and from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Italy and other countries.

I finally invite all the participants to fill the interview form and evaluate parts of this Conference. In this way, they will help us to improve our preparations of the forthcoming, 11th Conference in which we hope to see all of you next year. Upon handing in of the interview form you will receive a Conference CD. By participating at the Conference and registering your presence on various events you take part in a prize competition whose results will be announced at the closing of the conference on Wednesday, when the prizes will be given. Needless to say, we also expect your presence in the evening hours on relaxing free-time events (cocktails, dinners) organized by our sponsors (please consult the conference agenda on web www.case.hr/smartcard2010).

In the name of the Programme and Organizing Committee

Ante Polonijo
Organizing Committee SmartCard2010

Organizer of Conference: Case Ltd
Coorganizers:
Croatian Chamber of Economy,
Ministry of Science, Education and sports