On September 18th 2017, Nilson Report announced the list of the leading card manufacturers in the world. Accordingly, MK Smart ranked in the TOP 15 manufacturers of payment cards with 59 million and ranked 8th in the Visa and MasterCard production.

Nilson Report, in its 46th year of publication, is the most respected source of news and analysis of the global card and mobile payment industries. Nilson Report has provided a large number of exclusive statistics as well as brief news detailing the worldwide progress of card issuers and bank card payment, providers and service providers. Periodically, Nilson Report publishes the world’s largest card issuers and card acquirers, from which provides an overview of the entire card payment industry and its changes and challenges that the credit, debit and prepaid industry have to face up with.

In 2016, the card manufacturers shipped 6.43 billion payment cards worldwide, up 3.6% over 2015. Categories shown here include: MasterCard and Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards; UnionPay credit, debit and prepaid cards; American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, RuPay, Maestro and ATM and local-market-only credit, debit and prepaid cards; and retail, oil, medical, airline, fleet and other private label credit and debit payment cards. The issuance of EMV cards also reduced the number of mag-stripe cards being produced in 2016.

In the card payment field, the top eight manufacturers maintained their same rankings as in 2015. As a group, these manufacturers shipped 3.7 billion payment cards in 2016, a decline of 366.4 million units, or 9.1% compared with 2015.

One of the striking points of this reports is that MK Smart – a member of MK Group – was named to be one of the companies with impressive growth in the number of cards produced in 2016 (up 58.2 million), followed by Toppan Printing, Japan (up 27.5 million), Rosan Finance, Russia (up 11.7 million).

According to Nilson Report, MK Smart ranked in the TOP 15 manufacturers of payment cards in 2016 with 59 million cards, surpassing DZ Card Thailand to become the largest card manufacturer in Southeast Asia. Especially, MK Smart was the 8th in the list for Visa and MasterCard payment card production . In 2016, the total cards produced by MK Smart were 167 million with more than 60% of which exported to Japan and many Asian and Latin American countries.

After 14 years of development, MK Smart became one of the reputable names in the card industry, keeping up with the long-standing manufacturers in the developed countries, such as Gemalto, Oberthur, Giesecke & Devrient, highlighting Vietnam in the map of major card manufacturers in the world.

MK Smart was founded in 2003 as a member of MK Group. Currently, MK Smart is the leading company in Southeast Asia in the field of smart card manufacturing for the telecommunication sector (SIM card), banking – financial sector (mag-stripe card and chip card), enterprises and organizations. MK Smart is the unique company in Viet Nam that owns the technology and experience in chip cards, SAM cards, encryption and security fields.

MK Smart owns the two card plants located in Quang Minh Industrial Zone in Hanoi and Saigon Hi-Tech Park in Ho Chi Minh City with the largest and most modern in Vietnam as well as in the region. With Visa, MasterCard, JCB, UnionPay financial card manufacturing certificates, MK Smart has been trusted by the most banks in Vietnam as well as in Asia – Pacific for the high quality, reasonable price and fast delivery time.

On August 8th, 2017 at JW Marriott hotel, the conference “Promoting the application of civil encryption products and services for socio-economic development” was held by Department of Civil Cryptography Management and Cryptographic Product Testing, Government Cipher Committee. 

This was the discussion forum on research, development and application of cryptography products, contributing to the improvement of state management mechanism and policies on cryptography products. It also was the opportunity for leading technology companies to introduce technical solutions, technologies and security products, promoting the application of cryptography to information security in socio-economic field.

The conference was attended by key stakeholders representing the Government office, Ministry of Information and Communications, Government Cipher Committee, departments for managing and applying information technology and information security of the ministries and many others from organizations, enterprises trading & applying cryptography products, i.e. IBM, Oracle, HPE, Bitdefender, Samsung, Sonicwall, Netvision, MK Group, etc.
At the conference, Mr. Le Minh Quoc – CTO of MK Smart presented the All-in-one MK smart customization security solution and Mr. Vu Minh Vu – Solution Manager of MK Group presented the Prim’X high-grade encryption solution.

The All-in-one MK smart customization security solution is highly recommended for its flexibility and applicability of the implementation in practice. This is a high security solution implemented on the basis of the card and USB reader applied security algorithms and updated standards today. By mastering the smart card operating system, MK Smart can provide multi-factor authentication applications, such as: OTP, PKI and biometrics on smart card, token or USB reader. The All-in-one MK solution is designed to make it easy for updating and changing authentication methods or algorithms or biometric identification. The All-in-one MK is a great choice for security devices for e-government, enterprises, banks, personal and organizations.

Meanwhile, with the motto “Encrypt everything, everywhere and always”, the Prim’X high-grade encryption solution provided and presented at the event by MK Group is a new encryption method for greater protection of sensitive data against loss, theft, disclosure and economic espionage. The Prim’X high-grade encryption solution will enable these processes to be all-embracing, simple & transparent, automatic and security policy-driven. This solution is easy to implement for enterprises or government agencies. The Prim’X high-grade encryption solution has been provided for multiple major clients, such as EU, BNP Bank, Thales, the French Interior Ministry, etc.

As the trusted partner in Authentication and Security solutions, MK Group, via the conference “Promoting the application of cryptography products for socio-economic development”, hopes to introduce and provide organizations with efficient encryption methods enhancing data security in daily operations and production.

MK Smart JSC – a member of MK Group, today announced that it has been granted certificate by UnionPay International, affective July 5th 2017, for manufacturing UnionPay financial cards. MK Smart was deeply honored to be one of two leading companies in Southeast Asia fully certified by Card Schemes (Visa, MasterCard, JCB, UnionPay) and GSMA.

The reason that MK Smart granted this certificate due to the fact that MK Smart factory has years of experiences in manufacturing financial cards as well as it earned 03 certificates includes VISA, MasterCard and JCB, also MK Smart completely satisfies the stringent requirements of UPI for security and information technology infrastructure.

Currently, MK Smart factory in Quang Minh Industrial Zone Hanoi is equipped with advanced physical security system, including the security application with cutting-edge technologies, protecting securely clients’ data of financial institutions. On the other hand, the factory has a closed production process, from the stage of receiving information from client to finished product delivery. This process is closely monitored by qualified technical department with hi-tech infrastructure, ensuring efficiency and absolute security. So far, MK Smart is the only enterprise in Vietnam granted VISA, MasterCard, JCB and UPI certificates for financial card manufacturers and became one of the few enterprises in the World achieving this certificate.

Mr. Nguyen Hai Ha, CEO of MK Smart, said MK Smart’s success in earning UPI certificate has confirmed once again the leading position of MK Smart in Vietnam card industry, especially in financial and banking sector.

“UPI certificate allows MK Smart to provide UnionPay cards for banks in Vietnam as well as all over the world with high quality, competitive price and fast delivery”, added Mr.Ha.

Union Pay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focusing on the growth and support of UnionPay’s global business. In partnership with more than 1,500 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 162 countries and regions with issuance in 42 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world’s largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.

On 13rd June 2017, MK Group and Entrust Datacard successfully held the Financial Instant Issuance Seminar at Pullman Saigon Centre with participation of representatives from banking and financial sectors in the South.

At the seminar, Mr. Ajay Kumar, the Regional Managing Director – Financial Instant Issuance & Branch Transformation – Asia Pacific of Entrust Datacard and Mr. Do Hai Dang – Director of MK Group, Branch in Ho Chi Minh City shared ideas on banking development. The shared information was based on the experience and lessons learnt from practical solutions with various banks and financial institutions in the region.

According to the conversation, the four main contents include:
• Bank branch transformation
• Real-time response
• Seamless user experience
• Fraud protection

One of the special features of the solution is the optional self-service kiosks which help banks to optimize their branch operations, increase customer interaction, and ensure available services for customers when the branches are closed.

MK Group and Entrust Datacard, at the seminar, also received quite a few comments from customers about their current pressures related to budget cut and the requirement of optimum of investment cost. These problems are uneasy to solve for all banks and financial institutions in the world including Vietnam.

With vast experience in thousands of global projects, Entrust Datacard provided analytical data on the trend of solution growth, financial analysis on investment costs and survey on the instant impact of the solution for the positive change of cardholder behavior.

At the end of the seminar, the technical specialist also performed the demonstration and comprehensive technical training of the instant issuance solution, from which help banks to better understand the benefits and importance of instant issuance solution.

MK Group and Entrust Datacard hope that with visible benefits of financial instant issuance solution, Vietnam banks will have more tools to Build Loyalty and Drive Revenue.

On 15th April 2017, Sao Khue Award 2017 was held in Hanoi. This is a prestigious prize organized by the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) in recognition of the outstanding contribution of individuals and organizations for the development of the software industry in Vietnam.