At first glance, his work seems less rock than that of his namesake, co-founder of Talking Heads, a cult post-punk group from the late 1970s. And yet, in his white coat, David Byrne, director of the digital identity and security innovation and production activity (Digital Identity and SecurityDIS) from Thales, is revolutionizing its world in its own way: the smart card, whose fiftieth anniversary we just celebrated in March.
Arriving in 2013 at the Gémenos factory (Bouches-du-Rhône), where the technology invented in 1974 by Roland Moreno was industrialised by Gemplus in the late 1980s, Byrne spends his days imagining new forms that bank cards could take. Because the one considered obsolete by mobile payment applications is still widely used: the French CB bank card network had 77 million in circulation in France in 2023; worldwide, more than 3.3 billion were issued that same year, according to the firm Eurosmart.
Thales, which entered the market in 2019 with the acquisition of Gemalto, which was itself born from the merger of Gemplus and Axalto in 2006, produces about one in three bank cards issued worldwide. Number one is its French competitor Idemia, with about half the market. The German company G&D completes the podium. Thales DIS generated, in 2023, a turnover of 3.3 billion euros, an increase of 4.1%, or 18% of the group’s total.
Biometric cards
“Despite the digitalisation of services, our clients, the big banks, have never asked us for so many new things”insists Mr. Innovation of Thales DIS, known on September 4, during a press visit to which The world was invited. There are biometric cards, which allow secure contactless payment with a thumbprint (the solution is already offered by BNP Paribas). Or those adapted for the blind, which vocalize on the consumer’s smartphone the amount of the transaction entered into the payment terminal by the seller. There are also some gadgets, such as these LED cards that light up or the heavier metal ones, as if to indicate the weight of the bank account.
Byrne’s teams are also working to reduce plastic consumption by incorporating more recycled materials. “A quarter of bank cards are eco-responsible, either with recycled plastic or wood”Christelle Toureille, Vice President of Operations at Thales DIS, points out. Less requested by banks, these cards “green” They are still more expensive to manufacture. Furthermore, payment institutions have not established a process for recovering and revaluing expired cards.
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