CSI Announces World's Largest Multi-Bank Smart Card Payment Scheme

Card Services International (CSI), the world's leading smart card software company, in partnership with International Business Machines (IBM), announced today that it has won the contract to supply the technology for the world's largest multi-bank smart card payment scheme. The contract was awarded by Smart Card Nigeria plc, a consortium of 19 banks in Nigeria.

The contract is to supply the application software, CSI's CardBASE2000^®, smart cards and point of sale devices for a national electronic purse smart card scheme in Nigeria. The first phase, due to begin in mid-1998, will cover 22,000 cardholders and 200 merchants. The second phase will be quickly extended to cover millions of cardholders and a greatly expanded merchant network. According to CSI, this scheme represents the largest multi-bank, high value, smart card payments project in the world to date.

Smart Card Nigeria plc (SNP) is the joint stock company formed by the 19-strong banking consortium. SNP will control the inter-bank clearing, settlement and administration of the scheme. These clearing, settlement and administration functions will be maintained by secure modules from within the CardBASE2000^® suite of application software provided by CSI.

Each member bank will be responsible for the issue of cards to its own customers and for the collection of transactions from its own merchants. This will be done by installing the CardBASE2000^® Issuer, and the CardBASE2000^® Acquirer management software modules in all 19 banks. In addition, the 19 banks will maintain on-line links to SNP, to verify the integrity of all value loads and transactions.

The shareholders in Smartcard Nigeria plc include:

All States Trust Bank Ltd	Citibank Nigeria
Credit Lyonnais Nigeria	First Bank of Nigeria plc
Guaranty Trust Bank plc	United Bank for Africa plc
Fidelity Union Merchant Bank	Diamond Bank Limited
First City Merchant Bank	Union Bank of Nigeria plc
Wema Bank plc	Ecobank Nigeria plc
FSB International Bank plc	Afribank Nigeria plc
Societe Generale Bank	Merchant Banking Corp Ltd
Zenith International Bank Ltd	Citizens International Bank Ltd
Chartered Bank Limited

This multi-million dollar contract is the commercial output of a world-wide marketing agreement signed between CSI and IBM in Q2 1997. CSI / IBM are involved in discussions with a number of banks, regarding the implementation of the CardBASE2000^® solution in other countries.

Commenting on the recently awarded contract, Aonghus Geraghty, CSI's Managing Director, "Once you have experienced the cash handling difficulties in an emerging economy, you can readily appreciate why the Nigerian banks have embraced smart cards with such enthusiasm. The security provided by the smart card coupled with the off-line capabilities for payment transactions, makes this technology ideally suited to the local requirements."

Aonghus Geraghty went on to add, "CSI is very excited about this implementation and the opportunity it presents not only in Nigeria but also on the African continent. I must thank IBM Central Africa and their local partners Union Systems, for their excellent support during the very competitive tendering process. We look forward to working with our partners and with Smartcard Nigeria plc, in the implementation of this sophisticated and secure payment scheme, that will be an excellent reference site and benchmark for similar implementations."

According to Hans Ebbeling, IBM Smart Card Solutions, "The establishment of the IBM Smart Card Solutions Group a number of years ago, signaled the Corporation's confidence that the smart card would play an increasingly important role in the electronic payments market worldwide. This significant national payments project, provides a clear indication that this market is developing rapidly. IBM, through its worldwide agreement with CSI, plans to play a major role in the provision of leading product and service solutions to this market."

According to Dr Patrick Merino, Managing Director SNP, "This project has generated an unprecedented level of co-operation among banks. For the first time in Nigerian banking, a large group of institutions representing about 80% of the sector in terms of assets, has come together. They have set up number of joint committees, and have worked tirelessly to achieve a common objective. The benefits are visible in terms of reduced investment by each individual bank and of enlarged market due to the common standard. The experience of co-operation, we believe, is one of the main achievements of the project. We think that our experience can be replicated, and puts advanced technology within reach of developing economies."

According to Mr Oliver Tattan, Chief Executive of the Irish Trade Board, "Irish companies have the proven capabilities in innovation, quality, flexibility and customisation to meet the needs of its customers. CSI, in partnership with IBM, succeeded in building a valuable strategic relationship with its customer on the basis of credibility, expertise, trust and understanding in developing a competitive supply chain solution to its requirements".