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The Swedish Transport Administration has placed an order with Sensys Traffic, as part of their 2013 agreement, for automatic traffic safety control (ATC) systems. The US$12.5 million order is for the continued replacement of existing ATC systems and the installation of new ATC stations in 2015. "Business with the Swedish Transport Administration has gone very well since starting up in July 2013," says Sensys CEO Johan Frilund. "As our service organisation has grown, our relationship with the Administrati

Innovations in mobile ID technologies will soon enable secure identification and authentication, as well as instant access to critical information. And it is governments in less mature markets which will probably be the first to adopt these new technologies. This is because mobile phone use is very high in developing nations and government-to-citizen ID programmes have been moving towards electronic IDs.

Ensuring the security of payment systems is essential to maintain consumer confidence. The conference track ‘EMV: Challenges and benefits’, looks at ways of improving that security. When a customer uses his payment card in a store, he expects that the system will be secure. The interaction between EMV payment cards and POS terminals is strictly controlled.

Electronic payment solutions provider PAX Technology is determined to push into new markets after success in Brazil and China. Already, 300,000 Brazilian customers have received solutions using PAX D-series MPOS products (D180, D200 and D210) and the company insists there is more to come.

The emerging mobile shopping trends and technologies of the near future will be on show in the dedicated Connected Commerce Area at this year’s CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS. Eleven hardware, service and payment solutions pioneers will offer hands-on demonstrations of emerging shopping solutions, says Angelo Caci, ADN’Co deputy director.

Shoppers have never used as many high-tech, electronic devices as they do today. While browsing in a shop, customers can also browse the internet for pricing information on their purchases. Technology can deliver a better shopping experience than ever before. Speakers such as Laetitia Gazel Anthoine, CEO of Connecthings, will examine how ‘mobile coupons’ helped steer people to McDonald’s stores in Barcelona.

Until recently, criminals were the main concern of customers using the internet to make electronic payments. The public believed that malware and hacking were the domain of people on the wrong side of the law. The revelation that many governments and their secret services – the ‘good guys’ – were also gaining access to millions of computers and other electronic devices was a huge shock.

Money is changing. Despite some widely-publicised recent problems, the Bitcoin system is now worth around €7 billion ($8.9 billion) and other ‘crypto-currencies’ such as Ripple are gaining momentum. The success of these pioneers shows that customers are increasingly ready to consider payment systems that are different from traditional dollars, euros and yen.

Some of those attending CARTES 2014 will be old enough to remember the length of time it took for their new bank to issue a cheque card or chequebook.

US whistleblower Edward Snowden made millions of people aware of just how closely governments are scrutinising their private affairs. Nobody objects to law enforcement agencies uncovering terrorists’ funding sources, but the idea that bureaucrats can look into ordinary citizens’ financial and personal affairs makes many uncomfortable. The thought that criminals can do the same is even more alarming.

Predicting the future is notoriously difficult – if it was easy, national lotteries would be out of business very quickly – but the experts gathered for CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS Opening Summit have a better chance than most at defining the future shape of the payment, identification and mobility landscape. Traditionally, CARTES opens with a bang, as industry leaders in their fields look closely at the major trends that will affect everyone involved in the business of providing secure mobile financial system

Harm Radstaak, managing director EMEA with HID Global, talks about layered security and a future in which a single card or phone is all customers need

Person-to-business (P2B) mobile-initiated transactions across the five leading sub- Saharan African countries will grow nearly tenfold over the next five years, from $2.9 billion in 2013 to $28 billion.

Users on the move – that is the message as the key players in the digital payments industry converge on Paris to enjoy the 29th edition of CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS.

Companies in the secure connections industry have insisted that Apple’s move to pre-install its own SIM cards in new iPads will have a positive effect in the long-term - but Apple’s radical strategy does illustrate how the market is ever-changing, says Isabelle Alfano, exhibitions director, CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS Network.