GlobalPlatform Extends Compliance Program to Meet Financial Sector Requirements

13 December 2011 – GlobalPlatform has extended its compliance program to validate that a secure product meets the requirements outlined in the new GlobalPlatform Basic Financial Configuration. This technical advancement has been progressed by GlobalPlatform to meet industry demand for a qualification process, which confirms that a financial card product operates within the payment landscape as defined by GlobalPlatform Card Specification and expected by the industry.

GlobalPlatform has launched the Basic Financial Configuration to specify which elements of the GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.1.1 should be implemented by product vendors to ensure functional interoperability within the payment marketplace. This latest advancement of the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program will qualify financial products to promote market consistency and ensure long-term compatibility.

Four test tools, delivered by Barnes International, Collis, FIME and Galitt, are qualified to test a product’s compliance to the GlobalPlatform Basic Financial Configuration. To receive GlobalPlatform certification for a product, the testing must take place at an approved laboratory.

Gil Bernabeu, GlobalPlatform's Technical Director, comments: “Rather than validate compliance to an entire GlobalPlatform Specification, we have refined our compliance program to focus on functional requirements within a given sector. The development of the Basic Financial Configuration and supporting compliance program is in direct response to requests that we have received and the need to ensure the deployment of GlobalPlatform standards in the payments sector.”

As more and more applications reside on a single secure chip, it is important to abide to industry standards that will deliver long-term market stability and interoperability explains Bernabeu. He concludes: “As a cross-industry technical association GlobalPlatform is well placed to facilitate the approval of products to ensure they perform in a consistent manner and across different geographical markets and industry sectors. We have now officially launched a dedicated GlobalPlatform trademark and committed the appropriate resources to manage its use. We believe that the program will play a key role in validating the compliance of products to create trusted end-to-end solutions which will support the sustainable management of multiple applications embedded on a secure chip.”

To find out more about the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program and view a list of GlobalPlatform qualified test tools, accredited laboratories and certified products, please visit: https://globalplatform.wpengine.com/compliance.asp

-ENDS-

For further media information, please contact Sarah Jones or Nicole Mountain at iseepr: nicole@iseepr.co.uk / sarah@iseepr.co.uk or on + (0)1943 468007.

Notes to editors:
GlobalPlatform is a cross industry, not-for-profit association which identifies, develops and publishes specifications which facilitate the secure and interoperable deployment and management of multiple embedded applications on secure chip technology.  Its proven technical specifications are regarded as the international industry standard for building a trusted end-to-end solution which serves multiple actors and supports several business models.

The freely available specifications provide the foundation for market convergence and innovative new cross-sector partnerships.  The technology has been adopted globally across finance, mobile/telecom, government, healthcare, retail and transit sectors.   GlobalPlatform also supports an open compliance program ecosystem to ensure the long-term interoperability of secure chip technology.

As a member-driven association with cross-market representation from all world continents, GlobalPlatform membership is open to any organization operating within this landscape.  Its 60+ members contribute to technical committees and market-led task forces.  www.globalplatform.org