Ingenico services Iberia First data

The world of electronic payments is constantly changing. Electronic purses are proliferating, and Internet payment is a reality. Many different methods of payment are now available and terminals must be capable of handling these different scenarios. The objective which Ingenico has set itself is to enable electronic transactions to be carried out in all these contexts, in total security, and to facilitate the use of these systems, including in the Internet environment.

History of Ingenico-Compagnie Industrielle et Financière d'Ingénierie

France's Ingenico-Compagnie Industrielle et Financière d'Ingénierie is the world's leading manufacturer of electronic payment terminals and systems, beating out Hypercom and Verifone of the United States. Founded in 1980 by chairman and CEO Jean-Jacques Poutrel, who still owns about 14 percent of the company, Ingenico's products include debit, credit card and "smart" card point-of-sale payment terminals, smart card readers, front office servers for magnetic-strip cards and transactions, as well as software and e-commerce payment solutions. Ingenico ships more than one million terminals per year in the fast-growing electronic payment market. The company has also been quick to integrate emerging technology into its products, including communication with GSM-based mobile telephones and groundbreaking infrared-based secure payment integration with the popular Palm Pilot personal digital assistant. With its 1999 acquisition of IVI Checkmate, third-largest in the United States market and subsequently renamed Ingenico Corp., Ingenico not only boosted itself to the global market leadership, it also gave itself a prime entry in the United States-a market set to explode as it converts to the micro-chip based smart cards at the beginning of the twenty-first century. As a result of that acquisition, the company was able to win a $200 million contract from First Data Corp. in 2002 to develop its multifunction terminals for the U.S. market over the next five years. Ingenico is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange. Gemplus, the world's leading manufacturer of smart card, owns nearly 30 percent of Ingenico through its founder Marc Lassus; the two companies have not ruled out a possible merger in the future.