OT-Morpho strengthens its position in the Chinese financial grade authentication ecosystem by joining IFAA

OT-Morpho strengthens its position in the Chinese financial grade authentication ecosystem by joining IFAA

Paris, 28 June 2017

OT-Morpho, a world leader in digital security and identification technologies, today announces its membership of the Internet Finance Authentication Alliance (IFAA) which defines specifications aimed at improving the user experience for authentication without passwords, remote identification, and offline authentication for payment and other business scenarios. This announcement reinforces the position of the company in the Chinese financial grade authentication ecosystem. 

Founded in 2015 by Ant Financial, Alibaba, CAICT, Huawei, Samsung and ZTE, the IFAA focuses on enhancing the security of the verification of users' identity on mobile, wearable and IoT devices relying on fingerprint, face, iris recognition and other authentication methods. It gathers the whole industrial chain, including application providers, OEMs, security vendors, chip vendors, algorithm vendors and regulators. The current IFFA specifications are notably applied by Alibaba for Alipay, China's leading third-party online, mobile and in-store payment solution.

OT-Morpho has been invited to join the IFAA in the context of the definition of new security specifications related to embedded secure element (eSE) usage. Increasing concerns regarding users' authentication, data protection and privacy are arising with the growing trend of smartphones being used as payment devices, as well as to store and process sensitive biometric data. Trusted by major payment schemes, mobile payment application providers and handset makers worldwide, OT-Morpho brings unequalled expertise in the fields of eSE and biometrics to secure mobile payments. OT-Morpho's eSE, PEARL, has notably been adopted by leading handset and wearable device makers to secure contactless payment, transport and storage services in China.

 "We are very pleased to welcome OT-Morpho as member of the IFAA. Our ambition with our industrial partners is to define the highest security standards for mobile payment services in China and the addition of eSE support thanks to the contribution of OT will be an essential element in the next phase of our specifications," said Mr. Feng Chunpei, IFAA board chairman.

"Our contribution to the IFAA reflects our commitment to support our OEM customers and the mobile payment ecosystem in China. Combining their effort across the whole value chain to create nationwide authentication standards for payment and other use cases with our expertise in eSE and in biometrics will be a major step in further enhancing security and convenience for the end-users," said Yves Portalier, OT-Morpho, VP & General Manager, Telecom Business Unit, Morpho.

OT-Morpho is a world leader in digital security & identification technologies with the ambition to empower citizens and consumers alike to interact, pay, connect, commute, travel and even vote in ways that are now possible in a connected world.

As our physical and digital, civil and commercial lifestyles converge, OT-Morpho stands precisely at that crossroads to leverage the best in security and identity technologies and offer customized solutions to a wide range of international clients from key industries, including Financial services, Telecom, Identity, Security and IoT.

With close to €3bn in revenues and more than 14,000 employees, OT-Morpho is the result of the merger between OT (Oberthur Technologies) and Safran Identity & Security (Morpho) completed on 31 May 2017. Temporarily designated by the name "OT-Morpho", the new company will unveil its new name in September of this year.

For more information: 
www.morpho.com and www.oberthur.com  
Follow @Safran_Morpho and @OT_TheMcompany on Twitter  .

Press contacts
Isabelle de BUYER: [email protected] / T +33 (0)1 30 20 22 67
Julien TAHMISSIAN: [email protected] / T +33 (0)1 58 47 90 54