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Innovative Card Technologies |
Excerpts from an Interview with InCard Founder, President & Director, Alan Finkelstein
Q. Since its founding in 1993, Innovative Card Technologies has witnessed and capitalized upon major changes and innovations in the payment card industry. Take us through your 14 years of success.
A. At Innovative Card Technologies we are always asking “What functionality can we add to cards?” Credit cards are always at hand, why not approach them as a potential multi-purpose tool? When we first started back in 1993, we patented and began to develop a commercial process to put a magnifying lens into a credit card to help customers read their bills. The result, in 1998, was the LensCard, which was issued globally through nine banks. The LensCard dramatically increased customer response rates and reduced attrition by 60% for our issuers. The next step to add functionality to cards was to put power in them. Needless to say, putting power into a card and still making it thin enough to pass ISO standards was a huge challenge. We invested 5 years and tens of millions of dollars in R&D to achieve embedded power in an ISO-compliant, wafer-thin payment card.
The next part of the story is of the evolution of the operating system within the card. When we had our flexible battery and power system embedded, we were still looking for the ‘killer application’. We were not sure what it was, but security was definitely the most promising arena. In the meantime, we kept refining our technology. We started with a relatively simple application - light - because it does not require a chip. We were able to successfully embed an LED, button, battery, and switch, which resulted in the ISO-certified LightCard. At this point in our history, 1998, we had (and still have) the only ISO-certified power-embedded card on the market – very exciting. We then made a SoundCard, which required embedding a chip and tiny speaker. We positioned these as gift cards that played customized tunes. With these products, we had amassed enough technical expertise to start to tackle the massive problem of credit card fraud. The InCard DisplayCard – a one-time passcode generator with flexible display - was the next, natural evolution.
Q. Let’s talk more about the invention of the ICT Display Card with One-Time Password (OTP) and its electronic fraud prevention application. How did InCard come up with this?
A. We already had successfully embedded power into an ISO-compliant card. In order to make the InCard DisplayCard, we needed to add a super-thin flexible display and chip. InCard worked with France-based nCryptone to develop the operating system. We then bought all the rights to the InCard DisplayCard technology in 2006. We were out in front early with this technology, and we can now mass-produce customized InCard DisplayCards. Our default algorithm is the one supported by the Initiative for Open AuTHentication (OATH), an industry group looking to standardize an open authentication solution. We can also use our customer’s proprietary algorithms – and these cards can double as functional payment cards. They can be embossed and are guaranteed for three years or 15,000 uses. We have pilots underway at several “household name” banks in the U.S. and internationally, and are signing on new partners regularly.
Q. Besides the OTP payment card application, what other markets are you targeting? I understand you have a product targeted at enterprise applications.
A. We actually think the enterprise market shows the best immediate potential for our product. For this market we are offering a two-in-one corporate ID badge and token, giving physical access via RFID and logical access via the one-time passcode on the display. We have a lot of interest in this card, as it will eliminate the need for bulky key fob style tokens, and the card itself is much thinner than most swipe cards and easier to carry.
Q. How would you define your role as a smart cards player in the cards industry? What do you currently have to offer?
A. Innovative Card Technologies makes smart cards smarter. All the functionalities that we have developed are compatible with smart card chips – we want to give consumers the most bang for their wallet space possible, as well as securing their personal data. We are very dedicated to evangelizing the widespread adoption of smart cards globally, and are active members of the Smart Card Alliance. One day, we would like to see the information from the smart card chip displayed on the card’s screen – such as previous transactions, prepaid card balances, etc. Because the card has its own power source, we are not hobbled by needing a reader. However, the trick is to add functionality while minimizing power drain on our wafer-thin battery.
Q. What global region are you targeting for your products?
A. We have partners in North and South America, Europe and Asia, and have distributed cards to institutions in all of these regions. We take a very global view of our distribution channels, and work with our local partners to tailor our products to each regional customer’s needs.