Development of Central Data Management Service for IC Card Issuance by TOPPAN Printing
As old credit cards are being replaced with IC based cards with estimated target of 80% within two years time in Japan, management of IC cards by financial institution in order to minimize damages and loss of these cards due to accidents or other reason is a costly task forcing the financial institution in Japan to divide IC card manufacturing operations between multiple manufacturing companies. In doing so many financial institutions entrust master keys to multiple IC card manufacturers that have data generation environment. At the same time in order to generate the necessary data for IC card manufacturer, a high security encoded. Carrying out the data generation at the financial institution comes with a significant initial investment. In addition to this cost, financial institutions incur additional cost and workload of managing and maintaining multiple master keys from different IC card manufacturer. Based on this need Toppan Printing launched the sale of TOPPAN ACIS-DG, a central data management service for IC card issuance, with aim to improve management efficiency and reducing costs of managing and maintaining the process through centralized system. The newly launched service with Toppan is capable of centrally managing the master keys needed by financial institutions for IC card manufacturer. Through use of this system, using the master key received from a financial institution, the important data which are required for manufacturing of the IC cash cards as well as IC credit cards are generated in bulk and distributed to the card manufacturing companies, helping the financial institutions to centrally manage data with high level of security while reducing the cost of management and maintenance of the overall operation. The sales of the new services is targeted at such financial institution as banks, credit card companies throughout Japan aiming to introduce both IC cash card and credit cards. The new system comes with its own initial cost of 5 million yen to cover the network construction and etc. plus the operating cost of for data generation, distribution, maintenance etc. at 500,000 yen per month. The prices would however vary depending on such factors s number of locations where the issuance is being performed. Toppan is aiming to introduce the new system to 5 companies by the end of 2010.
