World leader in smart cards, identity systems and high-volume card issuance

Datacard provides customers in more than 200 countries with the systems, software and the consultative expertise they need to launch and maintain profitable card programs. Financial institutions, corporations, government agencies, telecommunications companies, transit providers, service bureaus, schools, hospitals and other organizations use Datacard solutions to personalize, issue and manage a variety of financial and identification cards.

The company helped transform the world for consumers and card issuers more than 30 years ago by enabling secure, high-volume issuance of magnetic stripe-based financial cards. Today, the vast majority of the world's financial cards - and a majority of plastic cards used for other applications - are personalized with Datacard® brand systems and software.

Datacard also redefined the identity solutions market 10 years ago, when it introduced the first digital identification systems. Today, Datacard identification systems outsell all other brands. But more important, the company has advanced critical identity technologies - such as smart cards, biometrics and digital imaging - and developed a powerful portfolio of identity solutions. This portfolio includes the world's premier family of identity software and the largest family of plastic card printers. Corporations use Datacard identity solutions to create enterprisewide identity programs. Colleges, universities and K-12 schools rely on them for highly secure student ID programs. Government agencies around the world insist on Datacard identity solutions for a variety of applications, including national ID, healthcare, driver's license and passport programs.

After 30 years of plastic card leadership, Datacard stands on the brink of an even greater global transformation. In collaboration with the world's leading financial institutions, consumer marketers and other leading smart card technology companies, Datacard has created the infrastructure required to personalize, issue and manage multi-application smart cards.

Multi-application smart cards are plastic cards with embedded microchips, which have the ability to store applications and process data. Datacard smart card specialists have a long history in the design of secure, multi-application smart card operating systems. This includes development of new, high security systems and active participation in the definition of worldwide technical standards through industry associations such as GlobalPlatform and the Smart Card Alliance.

Many of the world's leading financial institutions and consumer marketers plan to issue multi-application smart cards to consumers, who will use them to make purchases, conduct on-line transactions, place phone calls, access healthcare services, board airplanes, enter secure facilities and more. Datacard's smart card infrastructure will be used to personalize, distribute and manage a vast majority of these single and multi-application smart cards.

Datacard Corporation, doing business as Datacard Group, is a privately held company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Worldwide operations include new software development centers in the U.S., the U.K., India and Japan. The company employs more than 1,600 people worldwide and generates annual revenues of more than $300 million.